Cartoon Network Universe: Earth One - FusionFall
by RayO1
Summary: Five years after an attempted invasion from another world, 16 year old Ben Tennyson meets with old friend Dexter McPherson, who now runs a technology corporation called Dexlabs Inc. He is asked to test out the new version of a time machine, but when someone screws it up, everyone on Earth is thrown into a war to save the universe.
1. A Fusion Matter

**Bold** = Emphasis/Commentary

 _Italic_ = Emphasis

[] = Artificial Intelligence/Android Speech

* * *

 **MAY 22 - 2014 - BELLWOOD SUBURBS - BEFORE THE INVASION**

He stared at the ceiling of his domain as he woke up from his deep slumber, with the first thoughts emerging in his mind being the hunger, the hunger that craved delicious meats and a great many other things, the hunger that would have to be forsaken in favor of the more prioritizing responsibilities before him. For he was no ordinary kid.

He was Benjamin Tennyson, 15 year-old kid with an abnormal tendency to forget responsibilities, especially a certain thing that he was _supposed_ to do today.

He looked up at the ceiling of his room, attempting to ignore his craving for the chili fries and smoothies. He tries to remember what was supposed to happen today, he knew it was important, and he knew it was something that he signed up for - a while ago. 'So what was it?' he asked himself. He tries to stay focused, but to no avail, he was too tired to stay up. He tried looking at his watch to see what the time was, only to remember that his watch can't tell time, it could only do _something else_.

Ben breathed one last time before he drifted off in to his sleep again; the thoughts in his mind recurring, what important thing was he supposed to do...at Dexlabs...today...

* * *

 **FLASHBACK: JULY 15 - 2009**

"Ben! Get down here and help your cousin!"

"Why?" asked Ben, what was ever so rigorous about making normal food?

"Because you can't get any hot dogs if you don't help," his grandfather responded.

He paused for a moment. "Yeah it's totally worth it," the kid said.

Another day in the "normal" life of 10 year old Benjamin Tennyson. As if it were normal enough (if you know what that means) It was finally one of those days when his Grandpa Max was making normal food, no fried butterflies, no live maggots, no octopus eyes, just normal processed pig guts in a bun. He was lying on the roof of the Rust Bucket, letting the sun shine on his face. It actually made him want to sleep.

Just when he was finally was drifting off, a meteorite zoomed by and crashed into the woods, or at least what he could make out to be another meteor; he watched as it landed down in the forest...typical.

Well, on the bright side, it definitely didn't to crash on him.

"Aw shoot, just when I was having me time," he complained to himself, he got off the roof and opened the RV door, ignoring Gwen reading, "Hey, I'll be back, 'kay Gramps?"

"Don't wander off too far." said Max.

"Yeah, sure." he responded, as if! As he walked into the woods, he readied his watch for what could have been a huge fight.

* * *

Confusion was the only thing that could come to his evolved mind as he looked through the telescope. More or less he feared whether what was coming was ever so hostile or not, but from the looks of it (quite literally) he mustn't take the chance of it being non-hostile. He saught to rule Earth, not destroy it. For he is Mojo JoJo, and he will save this planet from destruction, no matter the cost, no matter how many lives (he) must end.

"There is only one safe way to determine our chances though. _Sky Monkeys_! Prepare thyselves for takeoff!"

* * *

 _Wrick Wrick_

Just another day in the lab...programming his giant, groundbreaking inventions. Nothing special. Actually he was getting his inventions ready for a public showing, in hopes of starting a technology corporation that can revolutionize the world. No big deal...

The yellow light began beeping, a news alert. The only thing was it was beeping rapidly...a _breaking_ news alert.

"Computress, please display this news report."

[Command denied; following priority directive: 'don't let anything distract me from my work!]

Dexter facepalmed at how stupid or arrogant he could be at sometimes. He never accounted for what could've been a world catastrophe.

"Authority overide, command change prompt 7." he said.

[Command denied; following priority directive: 'and do not let me even try to change my mind! I am to stay focused at all costs! Not unless my calendar says so!']

'Did Einstein ever have to deal with his own crap?' Dexter thinks to himself. He took out his phone and called the association that was sponsoring his "techfair" and asked for a rescheduling.

The good news was, they said OK! The bad news was...the next time he could display and distribute his inventions was in _five years from now_.

"(Sigh)... I'll take it," Dexter reluctantly said. He turned around to face his rather frustrating AI. "Okay, I have cleared my calendar...now can I see the news report?"

[Accessing recent media]

The screen showed that a mysterious asteroid had crashed near a small suburban town called Peach Creek. Government Officials were stating that the asteroid had an abnormal green glow coming from the inside, and they assumed that whatever it was, it was hostile. They were also calling in any local scientists to help investigate.

"And that's my cue." Dexter said while he hid a smile. "Computress, I shall be heading out. Get a pack ready just in case."

[Already done, sir.]

He casually took his pack and left the lab. As he walked out, he thought to himself 'Note to self: rewrite authority override system.'

* * *

News reports were all over the place, all about the same thing, unholy asteroids from outer space that glow green and do nothing for a full hour. SECT was all over it, citing one of these things in Peach Creek, another in Bellwood, and two in Townsville. Of course, they forgot about the huge one in Sector V. Classic SECT.

"Hey Two, anything so far?"

"Nothing yet. Hasn't been anything so far...so...Abby, how's your sister?"

"Sis' is cool," said Number Five, "she's into this weird phase where she uses weird phrases and then quotes them...how's the little guy?"

"Tommy is...well...Tommy, still trying to be a superhero, like me..."

"We ain't heroes, Numbuh Two."

"Well Tommy's pretty hell-bent on believing that stuff, and no matter what you do, you really can't change his opinion," Number Two said, "I think my mom is gonna go to an insane asylum if he keeps up with this stuff."

She chuckles at his joke, "Funny," she says, "So what do you think is in the meteor?"

"I don't know...probably another alien."

"Well yeah, 'course it's alien, but what do you think it's going to do when it comes out?"

"I really have no-"

"Fine, what do you think it's going to look like?" she asks.

"Oh, what if it's like one of those aliens in Bellwood?"

"They didn't exactly come out of meteors."

"Well then I can't decide." Number Two said. Just then, his phone began beeping, and after looking at it, he continues, "Anyway, does the rest of the KND know about the asteroid?"

Number Five sighed, this must have the fifth time he'd asked her this. " _No_ , they're having some trouble with their Wi-Fi."

"Well I just got a reply from Number One, apparently he just found out about the situation about this and he wants us to go down, take a look at the thing ourselves."

"Hold on...remind me again... where is Numbuh One?" she asked.

"He's with Kuki and Wally, 274 assigned them this weird mission in Nevada, something about this new base on a mountai-wait!"

Number Five glanced over to wherever Number Two was looking at. The asteroid was _finally cracking open_. Both operatives raised their weapons, awaiting whatever in hell's name they were going to see.

The asteroid split open, revealing a strange alien egg-like plant-blob that began growing, rapidly. The vines from its bottom began spreading, and the KND operatives started backing away from what they clearly didn't want to see.

The blob somehow spawned a green glowing creature with glowing red eyes and jagged mouths. They hesitated for a while, looking around with vicious glares.

"...Eww..."

"That...ain't right at all..."

After a few moments of hesitating, a KND operative came closer to the spawnling, shaking as he aimed his rifle at it. The creature looked at him in what seemed to be a mixture of caution and aggression, but they all knew it was nothing like that at all. As the operative took one step closer, small green tentacles began to _emerge from the thing's body_. It grabbed the operative's gun-

-and straight out took a _bite_ out of it-

-and then _disintegrated_ the remains of said gun...with another _touch_.

The operatives stood there in near shock as the unnatural organism began licking the dust that was once a weapon.

After a long moment of silence, an older operative spoke up, "Well, I'm out."

The spawnlings then began attacking the KND, they all started screaming, running as fast as they could (some actually running back to their homes, crying). Noticing the situation down there, Number Two and Five headed down and begin firing at the spawns (almost aimlessly). The spawns were hit, but they uncannily regenerated at every move. Realizing their weapons were absolutely useless, Two and Five immediately headed back to the treehouse, while still trying to fend off the spawns (with their useless weapons(such logic).

Number Two began trying to call in reinforcements, but something was jamming their comms. They were then, something that would make superhero fans faint took place...(without the superhero fans)

Pink and Blue lights entered the battle in a sonic boom, with all the spawns obliterated by the wind in the process, Two and Five stared at the remains (just a bunch of goo really) of their attackers, dumbfounded. Dumbfounded to the point where they didn't realize that they were being lifted up in the air.

They were just saved...by the Powerpuff Girls.

Coming back to reality, Five immediately blurted out "Two! You owe me $5!"

"What? Why?"

"Remember last week? You said that if we were held hostage by Mr. Boss or somethin' stupid, the PPG wouldn't save us!"

"Is this _really_ a time to talk-"

"'Like three ten-year old girls are ever going to want to save us!' So I bet you it was totally possible, here they are now, and now you gimme my money!"

Eventually, the two stopped their bickering out of exhaustion. The PPG got them safe on the ground afterwards. They then-wait, why were they exhausted?

"You two look bored."

"From your constant bickering." said Blossom, the pink one.

"Wait," said Number Two, "weren't there three of you?"

"There are, Buttercup is actually here in Bellwood, one of those things landed here too."

Number Two looked confused, "We're in Bellwood?"

"Yeah," said Bubbles, "you two have been at it for two straight hours."

Another loud boom is heard in the distance and suddenly, pieces of goo fall from the sky. As the puddles lay there, Buttercup (the green one) lands on the group with her glowing eyes fading. She walks towards the four as they stand there in...disbelief?

"Hey," she said, "What took you guys so long?"

"Don't try to pull off that trick!" said Blossom, "I can tell someone helped you out."

Buttercup's victorious grin faded a little.

"(Pause) Yeah, I had help..."

"Why didn't anyone tell me that we were having a party?" asked someone unseen, until everyone turned around. A flaming humanoid figure with an hourglass symbol on his chest appeared, his skin charred and broken apart like a magma rock in a volcano. He flew down and landed facing the PPG and the awestruck KND operatives. He touched his symbol and morphed into a ten year old kid, "I would have brought chips!"

Awkward silence was everywhere. No one would have guessed that an alien was just a ten year old human. Then again, they themselves existed, so there weren't that many surprises in store for them.

"Wait, you're a kid?" said Number Two in a rather disappointed fashion.

"This whole time, you've been a 10-year old? An innocent 10-year old who just put himself in harm's way?!" exclaims Bubbles.

"We're the ones who're s'possed to be helping kids, kid! Not you!" Number Five added.

"Oh I'm sorry," replied Ben, then turning towards the two KND operatives, "were you expecting Chuck Norris? Also, you're two to talk, you don't have any frickin' powers to begin with!"

Behind all five of them, the puddles started to come together, literally. It began to materialize in a form that was as large as a buffalo. Ben noticed it and readied his watch, and the others followed with their own paraphernalia. But just as the blob was about to form, it got incinerated by a blast of plasma, leaving nothing but smoke and a bomb shadow. A boy appeared in a white lab coat with a strange set of glasses, holding a smoking futuristic gun; he was strapped to a white, compressible exoskeleton, which quickly decompressed into a small backpack.

Like that was nothing out of the ordinary...

Ben broke the moment of silence, "So is this a party or not?" he said, "'cause I swear, I can get chips like right now."

"Is this really the time for humor?" the boy said. He then calmly said to the pink one, "On your left by the way."

"Can we please stop with the dramatic and unexplained entrances, Dexter?" said Blossom, as she punched the monster on her left.

"Look, let us get out of the city, it is not safe at all." said the boy, "These creatures are going to continue to - respawn, and it doesn't look they won't be ceasing to do so any time soon."

Everyone looked at each other in agreement, then back at the boy. They immediately left the area. Little did they know that behind them, the blobs of goo that were scattered all over the street began inching towards each other, yet again, having fused into larger puddles and formed a large enough shape to look like how it did originally. It tried to move, or hop, but instead made a moaning sound out of pain. It could feel that the damage inflicted by that lab-coat boy was more effective than that of those girls or those KND operatives. Rather than attempting to build itself back up again, it made its way to the green egg that it had spawned from.

The compiled puddles allowed itself to be absorbed by the egg, just as a nearby security camera zoomed in.

* * *

"My name is Dexter McPherson," the boy said, "I'm a local scientist from Genius Grove. I was investigating one of these things in Peach Creek, and then-"

"Weird monsters came out?"

"Broke some tech?"

"Interrupted a very nice day?"

"Yep, a _very nice day!_ " said Dexter with much irritation in his voice, "Anyway, I barely came out of that attack, and as I was escaping I detected three more of these "eggs". When I went to their impact sights, they weren't spawning those creatures. But people were trying to harm it, it kept on regenerating!"

"Regenerating?" said Buttercup, "What are you talking about? I blew up the egg and it's not regenerating."

"I noticed. Obviously something's not right, I invite you all to my laboratory in Genius Grove, we can break down the situation there."

"This kind of enemy is nothing like we've fought before." said Buttercup, with an already tired sigh.

"Sure, and it is only going to get harder. If we continue to attack with simply brute force, we may just make this situation worse. We need a basic plan of response. Luckily, I've come up with one."

"Wait," said Bubbles, "you know how to defeat the monsters?"

"No, I do not know...yet," Dexter said, "but I have some theories, does that count?"

Everyone gave him a shrug, to which Dexter turned around, "Lovely! Remember, Genius Grove - Dexter's Lab! 11:00 AM, no more, _no less_!"

* * *

 **PRESENT DAY: MAY 22 - 2014**

Dexter's Lab...

Dexter's Lab?

Dexlabs?

Dexlabs?!

'Oh crap!' He thought.

Ben swiveled his head to face his calendar, and saw in horror the big red 'X' that was scribbled over the the 14th of July.

'OH CRAP!' He thought again.

The thought almost escaped him, he had volunteered for this...this experiment that he had signed up for that was being headed by his old friend. Ben facepalmed mentally for forgetting this extremely important event, especially one that was being hosted by a friend! He jumped out of bed the moment his eyes opened, the calendar behind him serving as a guilt-instilling reminder to his sub-conscience.

'Stupid, stupid, _stupid!_ ' Ben thought as he frantically got dressed out of his shorts and into his jeans. 'Of all the days to forget, why _now?! Why now?!_ ' He then turned to the clock above him. It marked 1:30 PM. Ben mentally facepalmed for the second time as he remembered that Dexlabs needed him by at the most 11:00 AM.

Realizing that he was two hours late, he left his room, having fully dressed, and dashed through the living room. Grabbing the toast from the kitchen and running as fast as he could. He would just use his watch and transform into XLR8, but that would be overkill...and stupid. He ran out the door in a state of undress, his jacket and shoes missing from his chest and feet. Realizing he was partially naked, he quickly ran back inside and fixed the mess, now equipped with his signature green racing jacket and shoes.

"GottagoI'mverylateloveyoubye!" Ben said to his mother as he was running out the door frantically. Once he left, his mother continued preparing eggs and sausages in a monotone fashion. "Don't run in the hallway dear!" she said quietly, minutes after he had already left.

Ben was at this point running for his life, he was gasping for air as his body began anaerobically respiring. He saw the bus stop ahead, and saw the Dexbot heading back in. Oh no! This meant it was leaving, leaving and not coming back for at least 2 hours! It meant he'd have to run at least another mile to get to Tech Square.

Run another _mile._

"N-NO!" He exclaimed as he reached for his watch.

* * *

 **FLASHBACK: JULY 15 - 2009**

The streets were chaotic, people being chased by these slime monsters, police trying to fend them off, police running away from them; it was all in panic, and no one had a clue what exactly was going on.

Back in Genius Grove, all those who witnessed the alien attacks were gathered in Dexter's lab, along with three other KND operatives that the Two and Five had called over. They were bickering, unsure of what to do based on the creatures they've fought individually, and it was annoying the hell out of Dexter.

"I say we freeze em!"

"How about a stun ray?"

"Throw 'em in the ocean?"

"No! We need an anti-goo machine!"

"No weapons with flaws, Number Three!"

Luckily enough, the back-and-forth arguments was a scratch to Dexter, compared to the gushing gash before him. These bio-machines, or "terrafusers" as Dexter called them now, were getting larger and their spawning rate was rising dramatically, and surprisingly no one was as tense as Dexter thought they might have been.

Dexter was shocked at his findings, he had been monitoring the crash sites he visited, and the terrafusers that he co-ordinated on the way to Bellwood were showing things he had never seen before. He then looked at the the rest of his research, trying to find a connection. Finally, emerging from a deep thought came an enthusiastic: "Everyone! I have a plan!"

Everyone, as if a charm had been placed, finally stopped arguing as they heard those exciting words. They looked at him fiercely, as if they were waiting to leave the lab and stop the craziness happening outside.

"Having compiled enough data based on police reports, specimen sampling from SECT departments, recent geological and gravitational telemetry, and of course our own eyes, there is a way to be-"

"Dexter! Your plan won't make sense without us knowing, at all what those things even are!" said Blossom, rather irritated that one hour of planning came down to nothing but orders, "Why are you keeping us in the dark?!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I have been listening in on your arguments, and you all seem to want to take these things head-on, no?"

"Yep! There shouldn't be much sweat, right? Just give me a sec with those blobs and those things will be history..."

"Ben! You're not helping!"

"Why so? Sounds great to me!"

"Buttercup! You're not helping either!"

"Look, there is an ugly truth to all of this, a scientific explanation; I highly doubt that any one of you will understand the findings, and we _are_ on the clock here."

"'hat's a klutz-way ta think, y'know," responded Number Four, "'s he always like this?"

"Dexter, look," Number Five said as she gazed into Dexter's eyes, or what she could make out of them behind those thick goggles, "It don't help to just take orders! We need information before we'all just start shootin' at each-other."

"Number Five is right, Dexter," concurred Number One, "without knowing what these aliens are actually doin-"

"All right! All right! I'll show you the ugly truth if you do so please!" Dexter shouted across the room, not having the slightest visible change in emotion, aside from a small twitch around his shoulders. He took a deep breath, and continued.

"The spawns, to begin with, are obviously of extraterrestrial origin. What was more interesting was the reason behind their bizarre physiology. I collected a sample of one of the spawns from our encounter in Peach Creek and examined it closely. Check this out, this is at 4500x magnification. Computress!"

With a flash of light, many people in the room were stunned at what they saw, and many people were plain confused. Though based on the content shown, it could be safely said everyone fit into either one of these two categories. The picture was fuzzy, with small grey elements that could be made out through the green background shown. Everyone could figure, notwithstanding how much they knew in the field of science, that the image was magnified 4500 times, which should have captured the atomic level. Keeping this knowledge in mind, a question was quickly raised.

If this was the atomic level, then where were the atoms?

"Dexter, this is at 4500x, right? So are we at the subatomic level?"

"I understand the confusion, but surprisingly, it is not. This _is_ at the atomic level."

"So-"

"Where are the atoms? I looked deeper into what was missing, I even checked to see if the microscope used to take this photograph was malfunctioning, or if its view was too narrow. But as it appears, the microscope isn't broken. Instead, it appears it is apart of the creatures' greater biological functions. Simply put, they don't _have_ atoms."

"This is probably Gwen's work on me talking, but Dexter? I don't think I need to be smart, or even need to transform into Grey Matter, to know that that is 'biologically' impossible." said Ben, showing an uncharacteristic intrigue in the subject matter. "Atoms are needed for pretty much anything. Without atoms, there's...well, there ain't anything! But last I checked those things are touching and attacking folks like there's no tomorrow.

"Ben, you being the alien expert here, do you believe this to be of terrestrial origin?"

"Uhh...no?"

"So why do your aliens from that watch of yours, which have powers they should not really have, refuse to defy that logic?"

"Hey, don't judge the alien powers, it's complicated!" Ben said with shame, "anyway, sure, this world is a pretty amazing place. But this world, much like every living thing on it, is made of atoms. Duh!"

Dexter stared at Ben and struggled to comprehend the sarcasm in his voice, and let out a huge sigh. "To get to the point, those smudges you see on the screen are - barely atoms themselves, they are just protons, neutrons, and nothing more. I too was shocked at this discovery, it wasn't scientifically possible for protons and neutrons to exist outside a formal state of matter. That was when I had to dig deeper, and I found this," he displayed another image on the screen, the same as the last, with more focus on the green background. "They are being held together primarily by this foreign substance, which I've detected uses a magnetic frequency to do so."

Bubbles continued to draw blank expressions at Dexter's theory. "What exactly is giving off 'magnetic frequencies' here?"

Dexter looked at her with intuition as he flipped to the next image, this one a satellite image of the Bellwood crash site. "From what I can tell, it is a nanocomposite polymer electrolyte chain that has been laced around the specimen like some kind of force field. What that means for the creatures is that it acts as a healing agent, as well as an assimilating property that allows them to absorb other matter. It could explain how they are able to draw themselves back together even after a powerful blast. But here is where it gets scary. Remember how we saw the creatures get absorbed by the terrafuser? Right, we weren't there. You see, I hacked into the security cameras near the area of our fight, and the terrafuser stitched itself together as if Frankenstein was performing self-surgery. It drew back the dilapidated creatures, or whatever was left of them." That came to everyone's shock, especially Buttercup's. "Well, I found that it was doing that by using a variant of ionic energy. I rigged up an algorithm to trace that energy back to its source." Dexter pushed another button, only this time, there was no other image. The image of the crash site zoomed out to reveal a map of the tri-state area. "From the looks of it, the creatures that spawned from these machines were the ones who _gained_ _that ionic energy_ , as if there is some kind of psychic link between them, and it is transmitting to this epicenter," he pointed to the area labeled **TERRAFUSER ALPHA** , it was at Goat's Junkyard "where the ionic energy is charging up, getting ready for something..."

[Foreign Objective: Unknown - but we can be certain it is to no good cause], Computress's voice rang through the lab like bells to ears, startling everyone present, [Our operation is to destroy the core before the ionic build-up of energy; time remaining: uncertain - hypothesis: we need to move fast]

Once the AI finished, Dexter followed with a strategy, "Police initially tried to destroy one of the machines by using a weapon designed by Mandark Industries; around that same time, spawning activity in the other areas came to a short standstill before booting back up. What this could mean, presumably, is that these four terrafusers work as one, like a machine. **TERRAFUSER BETA** , **TERRAFUSER GAMMA** , and **TERRAFUSER DELTA** are like the processors: subdue them, and the machine is rendered vulnerable. So when that chance comes, we strike, at the same time, with our combined forces and my latest invention!" Dexter proceeded to display design sheets for what could best be described as a giant cannon, only less cannon-like.

"I call it an electro-pulse cannon. Simply put, it can charge raw ions of imagination energy with an electromagnetic pulse, which also magnetizes the particles and gives them the ability to separate matter constructs, such as our green little friends here, and it delivers it with a powerful concussive blast." Dexter said, with a level of conviction and pride that was not seen often due to his stoic nature.

"Imagination Energy? How do you know these things can be hurt by Imagination Energy?" Number Two asked. He knew Imagination Energy had lots of applications; its the stuff that creates imaginary friends, and can purify acidic reactions that could cause lots of damage, but to weaponize it? Use it as ammo against an alien force with _very_ similar qualities? It sounded like fighting fire with fire, which - instead of working out in the end - really just creates _more_ fire.

"Because I have seen the damage imagination energy can caused upon these creatures. Take a closer look at the security feed from earlier on. Observe the puddles of the goo as they try to reform." Dexter tapped on the image and, like a touchscreen it zoomed in. The creature, as it was struggling to piece itself together, was groaning in agony.

"Whoah!"

"Talk about pain, huh..."

"Where exactly do you get your imaginary energy from?" Number One inquired.

"A place called Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, where runaway or outgrown imaginary friends can stay for god-knows-how-long. They allowed me to collect data on imagination energy for research purposes, and then I designed a transducer that could store this type of energy; we could use it to amplify the blast created by the EPC, and make sure that it finishes these things for good...if I had it."

As if they were let down, everyone looked at Dexter with confusion, and later aggression. Number Four decided to break the silence by voicing everyone's concerns.

"WHADDY'A MEAN YA DON'T HAVE IT?!"

"Where the heck is it now?!"

"I still say we freeze them!"

"ALL OF YOU, BE QUIET!" shouted Dexter, "I have not lost it, I donated it to the Townsville Science Center, but it was stolen recently by none other than-"

Blossom knew immediately who he was speaking of, "-Mojo JoJo..."

"We've heard the news reports about that..." followed Ben. "We didn't know it was yours though..."

Dexter paused for a second, thinking of what to do next. The solution, like an electric charge, quickly came to his mind. "So we organize a strike team, to infiltrate Mojo's laboratory, and extract the transducer." He turned his head towards the Powerpuff Girls. "Girls, you know Mojo the best, and have probably been in his lab countless times before. You three will lead the strike team. Ben and Number Two will be right behind you." He pointed to the two, as the former readied his watch while the latter adjusted his goggles.

"If you want, we can call the professor to help you." said Blossom

"He's one of the leading minds in blowing stuff up...or was it chemistry? I don't know, just get him." followed Buttercup

"If Professor Utonium agrees to help, then of course you may." responded Dexter, "Now, Kids Next Door, I want you and any reserve operatives securing the areas under attack, specifically the site of Terrafuser Alpha."

"Cover up our existence after this rubbish and we just might!" said Number One. The KND wouldn't have allowed them to operate out in the open like this anyway, especially around adult police officers, their secrecy was paramount here.

Dexter had no choice but to nod in agreement. He was stepping, and possibly interfering with everyone's own little worlds here. But this threat was just too big, it was the only way - to bring them all together, to team up - to stop those spawnlings. But even as he saw everyone leave the room, Dexter knew that it wasn't enough.

"We probably need more someone more familiar in designing weapons, two heads are better than one, after all." said Dexter to himself, and without hesitation, he continued.

"I'm calling Mandark."

* * *

 **PRESENT DAY: MAY 22 - 2014**

Ben couldn't help but to sit down. He nearly missed his bus to Tech Square, which was actually leaving just as he was coming out of the house. He panted as he noticed that his omnitrix was powering down, making the familiar beeps and the eventual flashing green light reverting him back to his human form. The only other occupant was a man of age 40, with a body practically comprised of muscles. He wore a black v-neck t-shirt under a black flannel, a standard pair of jeans, and ray-brands that covered his eyes; he sported slicked back golden hair, that was pulled up in a cartoonish fashion.

"Heya! Howyadoin?" asked the man.

"I'm fine, thanks Johnny." Ben found himself

"Well, hey now! Don't get too sleepy!" said Johnny, in a hip and active voice that didn't suit his age at all. "You musta been in a rush to come up here as a freaky freaky alien! Any coolio like you must be in some cool stuff to do."

[Johnny Bravo: You have arrived at: Park County, Suburbs Area - Bellwood City, Washington - Have a safe, and pleasant stay]

"Later kiddo!" waved Johnny. Ben waved right back.

Johnny Bravo may not have been a good role model, but his advice was worth every ounce of boredom, especially for the simple subjects. Ben reminded himself to stay awake, keep himself fresh. He volunteered to do this, he had the responsibility of so. Also, not to mention, he had never been to Tech Square before.

Who knows how that place would be like?

* * *

 **FLASHBACK: JULY 15 - 2009**

"I've never actually bothered asking this 'til now, how exactly is there a volcano smack-dab in the middle of a city?!"

"Honestly, I don't have a clue," answered Blossom, "apparently it was for marketing and tourism purposes, but that's all just stupid-talk. But never mind that right now, let's finish what we came here to do."

Number Two didn't intend to use a hyperbole for his question, because it was kind of weird as to why an architect would build a city around an active volcano. That question had bothered the citizens of Townsville like a toothache, albeit an abnormally painless one. All most citizens could understand was not to go near it. They didn't think this because it was a volcano, but rather because on top of it was the lair of Mojo JoJo, the most frequent and fearsome foe of the Powerpuff Girls.

"Some evil genius," said Ben (as Upgrade) with an obvious level of sarcasm, "guy can't even program a half decent security system!" Ben's sarcasm had layers of truth to it. In the world they lived in, with not only three super-powered little girls, but also aliens, secret organizations, and boy geniuses, you'd think he would widen his focus to those threats too.

The moment the door opened, everyone readied themselves for a stun-ray blast, only to be disappointed. To their surprise, the laboratory was dark, pitch dark. They expected Mojo to call them out from the shadow, but the eerie and quiet nature of the clearly abandoned lab was reflected through the crickets chirping in the background.

"Looks deserted," said Ben, "must be away."

"Yeah, Mojo isn't always up to tyranny, if I can remember." said Bubbles. "Sometimes you could even catch him at the mall."

"Aw shoot, I was lookin' forward to some _monkey business_..." said Number Two.

"Ugh..." retorted Buttercup, just as she had found the light switch, and within milliseconds the lab illuminated, revealing all of Mojo's instruments: his giant telescope, numerous control panels, an "anti-crime lab" (whatever that was), among other things. Finding the device would be like finding a single LEGO brick in a child's messy room.

"Where do you think Mojo went?" Blossom asked.

"Who the heck cares? Lets just find this Transducer and get outta here!" replied Ben, who transformed back into his original form. of course, he was underestimating the amount of thought and searching it would take to find the device, though. As everyone started searching, he checked his watch to see if it was out of charge, as his Upgrade transformation was only brief. He transformed into Grey Matter soon after.

* * *

"You sure about this, Dexter?"

"Positive." Dexter said to his rival and friend. "Raw ions of imagination energy with an electromagnetic pulse, should be able to destroy these things and leave them in the dust."

"Splendid, and you need my help...why?"

"We both know the answer to that, Mandark, you are the best weapon designer that I know, and I know nothing in this field. You also know a computer's worth of information on ionization and matter formation, which is far more than I could ever hope to process."

"Yet you build a near-functional electro-pulse cannon. Although, I should say, the design is rather sloppy; its hardware is not efficient for firing concussive blasts like such. Luckily, it is nothing Mandark Industries can't retrofit." Mandark said, with a proud smile on his face, not much to the stoic Dexter. "Also, I looked through your calculations, and I could not help but notice that there is a missing variable."

"The missing variable is supposed to represent external matter from the outside atmosphere, such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon." said Dexter as he rolled his eyes. "It is then oxidized by the imagination energy. I have found that this form of power is capable of injuring these things."

"But perhaps you should add another variable." offered Mandark, "You should try to look into this: isolated anti-matter. It is twice as effective, and lord knows what that stuff can do with imagination energy, a source that can purify nearly anything.

Dexter crossed his arms, he was thinking of the offer. "Firstly, Simon, this isn't a business proposal, I'll be taking this regardless. Second, anti-matter can't co-exist with living matter, it goes against the laws of the universe. The only way that could happen is if there was a substance that could create a stabilizing agent-" Dexter stopped himself, realizing that the imagination energy was _already_ a stabilizing agent. Theoretically, a concentrated addition of it would be just enough to allow the matter and anti-matter to co-exist. "Oh...I see now."

"So? Could it work?" asked Mandark. "Honestly, I have no idea, I haven't retrofitted any of my technology with an anti-matter based power source before, your cannon is my test trial, so I'm legitimately asking, will it work?

Dexter gave no reply. He had a strong sense of integrity, one that he wasn't fond of losing, especially to Mandark, who founded his own company at age 12, while Dexter, age 11, was lying in the dirt.

"Throw aside the integrity-trash, Dexter. I may not have tested it, but I always know when I'm right, and so do you" said Mandark. Dexter huffed a bit out of frustration, sometimes it was like Mandark could read his mind. His frustration was interrupted by a small beep. It was an alert from Computress, someone was at the door.

Dexter looked at Mandark with a shrug, and walked out of his lab and down to his living room to open the door. A man stood there with an exhausted look on his face; he wore a white lab coat underneath a shirt and tie.

"Excuse me? Is this...uh," the man looked at the piece of paper more closely "McPherson Residence? I'm sorry, I'm just looking for a Dexter McPh-"

"You've come to the right place, Professor Utonium." Dexter said.

The Professor took a long sigh. "Oh thank god. I'm sorry if you waited, my girls forgot to give me a proper address." said Utonium, straightening his tie and fixing his hair, erasing the nervous impression he was giving off a few moments earlier. "What do you need me for exactly?"

"Your daughters recommended we ask you for advice on the biochemistry of a substance we have come across." said Mandark, who revealed himself to the Professor, "Your thoughts would be nice to see if we need to make any changes to our plans."

"Thanks, but they aren't my daughters." Utonium replied, ignoring the confused look on both Dexter and Mandark's face. He then turned to Dexter, "But shouldn't you be able to do it? The girls tell me you're much smarter than I am."

"Yes I am," said Dexter with a level of affirmation and confidence that made the Professor cringe. He had expected Dexter to be much smarter than him, but he also expected Dexter to be a bit modest, "But I have no focus in my field of science, whereas you do. Your knowledge in biochemistry can help make sure we are making all the necessary calculations among other things. You _are_ needed, sir."

 _There_ it was...

With a deep breath, Utonium asked: "What's the current situation?"

"The girls are accompanied by a few others on a mission. They are retrieving an imagination energy transducer from Mojo JoJo's laboratory. They should be okay."

* * *

"We are NOT OKAY!" thought Blossom, "We are NOT OKAY!"

Blossom was screaming in frustration on the inside. She was still trying to understand how the spawns found the team so quickly. They were actually hiding behind wooden desks while the spawns were regurgitating explosive matter at them. It was actually surprising that the wooden tables were durable enough to protect them so well. Blossom could see that the kid with the watch, Ben, was getting extremely impatient. He jumped up (then crouched back down as his head nearly got blasted off) with much futility.

Why aren't we being useful?! Let's take them on now!" shouted Ben.

"We can't! We still don't know where the transducer is! If we just throw stuff, we could accidentally break it!"

"Well I don't know how playing duck is any better!"

Blossom hated to admit it, but the kid was right, and her poor decision making deadlocked them into hiding, in little to no position to move at all. She was so stupi-no, never mind that now. They had a mission. But still, how were they going to do it at all if they were stuck here?

"What about a diversion?!"

"That's the oldest trick in the book! They won't ever fall fo-" Blossom tried to continue, but halted upon hearing a sound all too familiar to her: lasers. She looked at Bubbles, who hadn't moved a bit, and found the usual instead. Buttercup was firing her heat vision randomly at the spawns, to which they retreated a little.

"Buttercup! What are you doing?!"

"The only thing I can do! Make a sweet-looking diversion!" replied Buttercup, much to everyones' confusion. Then they realized that one of them was missing from the scene.

Number Two kept on searching for the transducer, with much irritation; if he knew what it looked like (which he did), this job would be a whole lot easier. Not to mention, but his searching space was limited to the area behind their makeshift fort. Good thing the monkey kept all his goodies in the back. That made Two think: Mojo must have stolen it for a reason, or why would this stupid situation be happening right now. 'Where could he have put it?' he thought. Sometimes, he wishes it was easier on him, like it was for Ben, who was able to hack into the security systems with a single touch. Better yet, Ben got the luxury of having to claim that he should widen his security features for others.

Wait a minute...

Two realized that maybe security had more to do with it. Mojo seemingly never did care to protect his lab from other super-powered people. He was so obsessed with his own ego that he had only three targets in mind. Mojo's only true enemies, the ones he would look out for the most. The ones...that could break into his lab at any moment without much help from an alien shapeshifting hero. So its real easy for the Powerpuff Girls to break in to his lab, like crooks breaking in with a crowbar, but for protection reasons...

...wouldn't it be best to have a gun in hand against the crooks?

With that, it dawned on Two. The transducer had to be exposed, kept out in the open for quick and careless use. It just had to! He searched the 'anti-crime lab'; nothing. He looked for a secret door; nothing. Sliding panel; nothing.

Behind the megalomaniacal poster of Mojo; something.

The panel with the poster opened upon sensory revealing another panel inside. At last, he finally found it! It was in a glass box, labeled _'In case of Powerpuff Girls'_.

Of course...

The glass quickly lifted, allowing the transducer to be taken. He took the slightly vibrating device and yelled "Guys! I found it!"

"Finally!" shouted Ben, as he transformed into Four-Arms, those lovely words were like bells to his ears. "TIME TO THROW STUFF!"

The ten-year old tetramand kicked back the somehow still-standing wooden tables back with full force, crushing most of the spawns on contact. He then charged into the crowd of spawns like a football player on adrenaline while a group of spawns made their way towards Number Two. The KND operative backed himself into a corner, sporting a fearful posture, which he was quickly relieved of thanks to Bubbles. The Powerpuff girl took him by the arm and hoisted him into the air, giving him a clear scope of the entire area.

Blossom, being the more proactive type, flew back to avoid any damage. She then drew in a lot of air, and called upon her ice breath to keep the spawns at bay. She did so knowing full well that there attacks were merely to hold them off. They didn't have any ion cannons or stuff like that. Ultimately they needed to stall them or damage them enough to get out of the lab, and make sure to secure the transducer...

...unless the transducer was exactly what they needed.

Meanwhile, Two and Bubbles seemed to be fairing well, but not well enough. Bubbles was shooting repeatedly at the spawns with her heat vision, but it was becoming clear that her eyes were tiring as she fired less and less powerful beams, catching Two's attention. Grabbing his R.A.Z.O.R gun from his back-pocket, the operative began firing unprotected, and sharp, utensils from a piece of string as he was kept hovering above ground. "That was a close _shave_!" he said, much to Bubbles's giggles.

"I will end you!" retorted Ben, with much annoyance in his voice.

"You talking to me or the spawn-things?"

"You wanna find out?!" said Ben, mashing all four of his fists together and cracking his knuckles, much to the sheepish smile on Two's face. Before Ben could go any further, he is stopped by Blossom.

"Not now!" She said while turning around "I have an idea! Number Two, pass the transducer to me!"

Number Two hesitated to give the transducer, not knowing what she was going to do with it, but whatever it was, it was probably something smart. He tossed it in to Blossom, who threw her fingers into strings of movements as if they were knitting strings of yarn. As she tinkered with the device, the spawns grew closer. They were accelerating towards the group of ten year-olds at a speed seen only in scary scenes in horror movies. Suddenly, Blossom held the transducer up, and with a flash of light and one shockwave later, the spawns were violently propelled backwards, reverting back into the goo they were made of.

The redheaded Powerpuff looked back to see her new friends' faces filled with delight and relief.

"Did...we win?" Blossom asked sarcastically.

* * *

 **PRESENT DAY: MAY 22 - 2014**

[Ben Tennysonn: You have arrived at: Tech Square, Downtown Area - Siyenn City, Washington] said the voice on the bus, which woke Ben as fast as XLR8, [Have a safe, and pleasant stay]

"Ben! We've been waiting practically all day for you!"

"Stuff it, Carl!" retorted Ben as he walked up the stairs to Dexlabs Headquarters. As he made his way through the laboratory, he rushed to the red-headed scientist tinkering on his computer. Ben, reduced to a tired, panting mess, fell to his knees to catch his breath. Once he did, he raised his head to see a figure around his height. He had red curly hair, black thick-rimmed goggle-like glasses, and a black turtleneck sweater with black slacks and matching black dress shoes, and a white belted lab coat. It was none other than Dexter McPherson, CEO and Top Scientist at Dexlabs, Inc.

"Hey..." said Ben, "I'm sorry I'm late, Dexter."

"No need to apologize, Ben." said Dexter, turning his head around, "We've been waiting for you."

* * *

Ben looked around the lab of Dexlabs a bit, always admiring its advanced look, advanced technology, advanced everything, really. It struck him as signs of the world getting more peaceful. Hopefully when that could happen, he would finally be able to hang up the watch. As he walked around the lab with Dexter, he saw most of the scientists and engineers glaring at him with looks that could kill...him.

"Of course, as always, thank you for volunteering for this important time travel experiment." said Dexter, with a degree of sympathy, "The number of people who refused to go on this little trip was unbelievable."

"Yeah, you'd think the words 'time' and 'travel' would be a little more - you know."

"Yeah, I do know." said Dexter "So how is life?"

"It's alright I guess," Ben replied with little confidence, "I got an upgrade for the omnitrix..."

"Really?"

"I actually haven't unlocked it yet, but based on what I heard about it, I'm calling it ultimate mode."

"You're already doing fine as you go now. Frankly you do not need it." said Dexter, to Ben's appreciation. "Back on the topic at hand. Have you ever gone time-traveling before?"

"Yeah, once," said Ben, "but it just turned out to be an alternate reality, and a stupid one too..."

At that moment, Dexter pressed a button that made his glasses look flashy, to which he turns around, "if that is what you are concerned about, then you signed up for the right experiment."

"What was that?" Ben asked

"What was what?"

"What you just did?"

"Monologuing?"

"No, the glasses thing."

"Oh yeah, it is a small app that makes my glasses flash without any dramatic lighting. It makes me feel more ingenious than I already am!"

Ben looks at his long-time friend with a long face, and soon after a long sigh. "No, it really doesn't." If he was so ingenious why is he still a socially awkward idiot? "You've been hanging around Blossom too much, man."

"Evidently not. Like you, she and I have not spoken for a while. But of course not as long as you, my friend." Dexter said, with a small smile on his face, one that couldn't be made out neither from afar or up close. "As I was saying, our invention is not an ordinary time-traveling device. The machine you are about to enter has been designed specifically to tap into this timeline's chrono-keys. Meaning if our theory of fate is real, it can take us to the real future, our future. Of course, this is all an experiment, we do not know for certain until the theory has been proven."

That last bit threw Ben off a bit, but from the sound of it, it was going to be one hell of a ride. He was so enamored with the experiment, that he failed to notice the small creaking sound of a door, and near-mute tip-toeing.

* * *

 **FLASHBACK: JULY 15 - 2009**

[Dexter, the drone you have commissioned is now arriving at its destination - terrafuser charge-up: 87%] said Computress through the P.A.

"Oh no...Professor, what's your progress?"

"Just working out the kinks in this anti-matter adapter that I've rigged up to keep the stuff flowing." Utonium responded, "What about my girls? Are they safe yet?"

"Safe and sound, Professor!" said a voice from afar. Utonium let out a deep breath of relief. "and with one intact imaginary energy transducer!"

"Mojo wasn't there for some reason," said Number Two, "but there are spawns that are currently headed our way."

"We'll hold them off here! Get to Goat's Junkyard and meet up with the KND before it is too late!" Mandark said. But the Junkyard was miles from here, Blossom thought. They'd have to teleport if they were to get there in time.

"Back to the S.C.A.M.P-" Number Two tried to say.

"Not enough time! Head into that prototype teleporter! Now!" said Dexter with a terrifying sense of urgency, though that wasn't what was actually terrifying for the others. He did say 'prototype' _teleporter_ , right?

As they boarded the pad, Dexter began operating the control panel, and placed his hand on a lever, not waiting a moment's time for anyone's approval. With a flash of light and intense machinery noise, they were gone.

"Dexter, you continue to do things that scare the living hell out of me." said the Professor.

"Oh, do not be so over dramatic! I tested it once...on my sister's Rainbow Monkey plush." replied Dexter.

"Did you test it with organic material?!"

It took a moment for Dexter to understand what the Professor was referring to, which in response he widened his eyes in fear. "O-Of course, it was...uh...just now?"

* * *

"Hold the line, Sector V! We ain't out of the woods yet!" said Number Five.

"We surround the terrafuser-thing and make sure no creepy alien gets past us!" said Number One.

"Remember your blamblam maneuvers!" added Number Three.

Suddenly, a flash of light appeared behind the terrafuser, noticed by Number Three. Out of that light came Number Two, the Powerpuff Girls, and that kid with the watch. In Blossom's hand was a large, cylindrical device that was pulsating from something inside.

"Oh boy, I might hurl!" Ben said with excruciating pain in his stomach, so much so that he was clutching it tightly. He retreated to a corner to release the vomit, much to the others' disgust.

"Take it somewhere else man!" exclaimed a KND Operative.

* * *

"Hey Coop? You hear somethin'?"

"Yeah I did Jamie...you cryin' like a little girl after I beat your ass in 'Destructo CHALLENGE!'"

"...You never let me have anything!"

Little did the two slobs in the RV know that the sound outside was a destructive battle, that was making even a junkyard look dilapidated. In short, the battle between the spawns and the heroes was intense. Blossom and Buttercup rushed to fly in, and both swiftly gave a devastating uppercut to a spawn, all while still having the transducer in hand and unharmed. Ben transformed into Stinkfly and immediately began spraying the spawns with toxic waste, while the rest of the heroes fought the spawns with more traditional methods.

"Hey, Blossom was right! Freeze Rays are cool!" said Number Two, as he fired his freeze ray at the spawns, and once at the terrafuser.

"Does he ever **shut up**?!" asked Ben (as Diamondhead) as he kept punching the terrafuser.

Number Five gave a small chuckle, "Ha! No way! Hey, it looks like our strategy is working!" Number Five pointed to the Terrafuser slowly decaying. It was being deprived of the ionic energy that the spawns were collecting, and with the damage it was getting every now and then it was failing to hold itself together. Number One, however, looked a tad bit confused.

"Hey, I just realized. If all of us are here, who's distracting the-"

Number One's inquiry was interrupted by a sharp sonic sound from his belt. Someone had hacked KND transmissions, and their voice came from the walkie talkie. "Rest assured Nigel, my Mandroids are handling Terrafusers Beta to Delta right now. There is currently one hovering above the junkyard you are positioned at. It has been loaded, and is ready to fire, but we need the transducer inserted into the EPC first! It's being held by my Mandroid above the junkyard!"

Number One realized what needed to be done, and quickly gave the hand signal to his comrades to take over for him. He went over to find Blossom, who apparently had the device last.

"Blossom!" shouted Number One, getting the Powerpuff Girl's attention. "I have orders from that Mandark fellow! You need to insert the device into the cannon, it's up in the sky with a robot!" Blossom nodded in response, and made her way up in the air.

She spotted a drone, holding an immensely large cannon, and figured nothing but the obvious. She went over, transducer ready and pulsing, and looked for a plug in or something for the cannon to utilize the contents of the transducer.

After moments of searching, she found a small button, that she clicked, revealing a secret patch frame. She couldn't help but blush, she loved all that mystery stuff. And with the small click, the cannon was loaded and ready.

* * *

 **PRESENT DAY: MAY 22 - 2014**

"So..." Ben paused, since most of Dexter's experiments normally caused him to violently puke, "...this is safe. Right?"

"Do not judge things by mere looks, Ben." Dexter responded. "Also, please sit down."

Ben took a moment to notice his confined space. It was a large container with a single chair for his leisure.

"Okay, so before we begin, I'm going to need you to manually input your personal profile into the system." Dexter said, "Stand by, and I will bring it up on your monitor." Ben found himself before a large holographic interface asking him to type in his name. Wondering where to type his name, a holographic keyboard appeared, almost as if on que. He willingly typed in his information, including name, hair color, eye color, and date of birth.

"Now let the machine take a quick bio-scan of you to affirm that you are "Benjamin Kirby Tennyson"...your middle name is 'Kirby'?"

"I liked the video games, okay?" said Ben, with a hint of embarrassment.

Dexter shrugged it off and returned his attention back to the monitor. "Excellent, your bio-scan is nearly complete. While that is finishing, lets run a communications test. Computress?"

Even from inside the capsule, Ben could hear that ever-so-familiar voice on the P.A. [Communication servers: operational - I will be able to converse with the subject upon arrival in the future]

A voice from outside his view from the window called Dexter, "temporal flux-charge initiated, doctor."

Dexter turned back to Ben, "Dr. Xyrespace means that the energy source we are using can create temporal fluxes in time, like holes in a blanket, that allow you to travel swiftly and easily. It is charging that energy right now into the main engine, so you may feel a little bump."

Before he knew it, it became more than 'a little bump'. The place was practically shaking, and with no seat-belts anywhere, Ben had to hold the arms of his chair to keep himself from falling off. When the main engine calmed down a bit, and the "bumps" became more bearable, it was then, that Ben saw something out of place.

It was a girl; a little older than him and much taller than him too, in one hand a iced coffee, and in the other a pink handbag. She had a single ponytail held at the top of her head, that went down as far as her neck; she wore a white pair of spandex pants, as if she did yoga, and a magenta top, with was covered by a silk pink sweater that barely reached her elbows. On her face was a clueless smile that spoke all kinds of mischief.

She was also wearing ballet shoes...weird. But that uncanny observation became more alarming as he saw her tip-toeing behind most of the scientists, who were too enamored with what they were seeing to notice her.

"Uh, Dexter?"

"Not now, Ben. Prepare for launch!"

* * *

 **FLASHBACK: JULY 15 - 2009**

"It is all ready, Dexter! Now fire the EPC!"

Just as before, Dexter hated admitting things to Mandark. But even he had to admit he was waiting for those words for a while now. Behind him, Professor Utonium fist-pumped in the air.

"Excellent work, Simon! Stand by to fire!"

The red translucent button began to beep like there was no tomorrow, which there probably wasn't if it wasn't pressed soon. Dexter, quick-thinking as always, did not hesitate to press the big red button. Funny, big red buttons were normally his bane (usually because of his sister), but here, there was no problem, no destruction, and no mayhem...

...so why the hell was it showing an error sign?!

 **[Electro-Pulse Cannon - Malfunction! Electro-Pulse Cannon - Malfunction!]** Computress repeated over and over again. Dexter's mind was racing, how could there have been an error?! All the calculations, the trajectories, the theories, the compositional matter matrix-

The compositional matter matrix!

"Dexter?" asked the Professor, "What happened?"

"Mandark happened!"

"This is not good" the Professor continued, as he saw the spawns finally overcoming the KND's defense barriers, and they merged back into the already glowing terrafuser, and before they knew it, the green egg shot out a magnificent green ray of light into the sky and beyond. Its light blinding everything in its path, and being bright enough for the whole world to see. It destroyed everything in its way, including the Mandroid holding the cannon, and a passing-by plane.

The latter of the two quickly got the attention of the girls, and Blossom looked at both Bubbles and Buttercup. With one small glare, they knew what they had to do. They quickly rushed away from the battle scene, while Blossom rushed down to get the cannon before its permanent destruction. However, Blossom couldn't help but notice...it was _really heavy!_

Meanwhile, back in Genius Grove, Dexter was tracing the problem and doing some small research on 'anti-matter', and he wasn't pleased with what he found "I should have known! That Mandark didn't do his research properly! Anti-matter may be compatible with normal matter with a stabilizing agent, but the result can reduce the number of necessary chemical reactions in order for it to exert said matter as a concussive blast! The thing interfering with that speed was the programming! So it resulted in failure!"

Utonium gasped at this revelation. "So you mean it-"

"-was not fast enough! Yet _he_ was fast enough to nearly sabotage this whole operation!" Dexter couldn't believe this, he expected more from Mandark, not this. "Professor, we need to extract that anti-matter before that terrafuser can cause anymore damage!"

"I'm working on it!" shouted the Professor in response. He picked up his cellphone while looking at the EPC blueprints, "Blossom! Are you there?"

" _bzzt-Y-yeah, I'm here!-bzzt-WHY DIDN'T THE CANNON WORK?!"_

"A small hiccup in our progress, but we can undo this!" said Utonium, "Alright, do you see a small hatch anywhere?"

" _bzzt-Yeah?-bzzt"_

"Open it, and you'll find a red wire, blue wire, and a purple wire. Are any of them damaged?"

" _No?_ "

"Fantastic, sweetie, I need you to cut the red wire!"

" _What if it explodes in my face?_ "

"It won't, Blossom. Trust me!"

Blossom didn't think for a second; she cut the red wire and with all her strength, held the cannon up in the air and in range of the terrafuser, and with another beautiful, cascading light, the tables were turned. The electro-beam, utilizing ionic imagination energy, decimated the terrafuser, melting and destroying all the spawns, and ending it before it could do any more damage.

"Did we win now?"

* * *

 **PRESENT DAY: MAY 22 - 2014**

Ben grew increasingly worried when the girl in the pink clothing shoes disappeared from his sight of vision.

"Launching in 3!"

Ben couldn't take the anxiety anymore. He just had to close his eyes.

"2"

Just get to one already! he thought to himself.

"1"

"Hey Dexter, what does this button do?"

Almost as if the world had ended before his eyes, Dexter froze in even his most minuscule of movements. He turned around slowly to notice the pink girl toying around with some of the emergency interface consoles. Ben had not seen a face like for a long time

"No, D.D! NO!" He shouted, he made a jump for his stupid sister's button mashing.

But by the time he made it to the console...

...he was already too late.

[Warning! Temporal flux disabled! Warning! Temporal flux disabled!]

"You god-damned idiot! Do you see what you have done?!" shouted Dexter. D.D looked a bit confused at first, not understanding what her little brother was talking about...until she heard pounding from inside the machine.

What did she do?!

Whatever she did, it shut off Ben's view, and darkened the inside of the capsule. He could hear Dexter's screams calling his name.

And then it was like there was nothing.

Pure peace and quiet.

And then came the motion.

Before he knew it, the time capsule was going at what seemed to be a supersonic speed. Ben clutched his chair, at a loss for words for what literally happened in one minute. Ben later thought of something, a memory from a time not so long ago.

Why did that come to mind of all memories?

..

..

 **[TIME JUMP: ERROR]**

* * *

 **FLASHBACK: JULY 15 - 2009**

"WE DID IT!" rejoiced Number Three.

"It's over!"

"Hallelujah!"

A small party at Genius Grove was hardly the definition. They, as a team, fought back an alien invasion! Sure, the kid with the watch may have done so lots more times, but not with a team, and definitely not a plan.

All was well, if it wasn't for the mini-explosions outside.

"No, no, no, no!" repeated Dexter. But to his favor, it wasn't what he expected it to be. There were no terrafusers or spawns outside.

No, spawns could not be easily confused with green-skinned monkeys...nor should their leader be either.

"MOJO!" shouted Buttercup, rushing to face him, "I should have known!"

"Known what?"

"It all makes sense, you created those aliens, you wreaked havoc all across the state! Why don't I just pound you?!"

"N-no...I was...not..."

Buttercup looked at her longest enemy without change in face, he could have been lying for all they knew! Dexter decided to intervene and question Mojo himself.

"Mojo! What did this to you?"

Mojo gave him no response, too weak to do so anyway, with multiple bruises and head traumas.

"He's been hurt, bad. You girls should get him to a hospital."

"B-blast...beacon!" Mojo said, surprising everyone. "It is c-coming, for us...all." He relapsed back into his weakened state, leaving everyone confused.

* * *

...

"Ugh..."

...

Eyes widened, ears still recovering from shock, he sat up in a dizzy state. The world was spinning endlessly around him, and Ben was failing to recover. Luckily, his brain was doing the job for him. He opened his eyes wide open, hopefully to regain focus, and he did. He looked around and noticed something was clearly wrong, aside from scattered metal from the destroyed time machine.

The grass was greener than usual.

Not in the sense that it looked healthy, as a matter of fact it looked the opposite, the grass he was sitting on looked like it was decaying rapidly, with the 'green-ness' coming from a strange glow under the soil. Ben looked up in shock as he came to his senses, but not before a voice rang in his ear.

[Error: You have been sent much farther into the future than Dexter intended]

Ben shivered at this eerie and unsettling information, and soon he regained his senses. He looked up, and what he saw, was more than startling.

The world around him was a battleground. Buildings were tipping over, the sky was green, and smoke filled the air from the flames that filled the ground. He saw countless terrafusers around him, much to his horror. In the center of it all, in the sky, was a giant fusion of planets, a planet covered in that goo, and it was coming straight for the earth.

 **THE FUTURE: FEBRUARY 4 - 2015**

* * *

 **DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL - Chapter 1: A Fusion Matter** **(A/N)**

 **I think I owe you all a very heartfelt explanation for the three-year delay of this fanfiction. Even though not any of you have been leaving reviews, its still wrong of me to leave you all in the dark. So here it is.**

 **I'm a writer, like, a real one...in training. I'm not your typical fanboy who writes because he ships two characters, or wants to see two franchises collide. I'm a fanboy who pays attention to his schoolwork and studies, and is currently striving to become a filmmaker. Yeah, I have a passion for filmmaking; right now, I have completed my second movie, and am currently editing a documentary on China. This may all sound like an extreme excuse to push fanfiction aside, but it ain't. Hopefully most of you people will understand that.**

 **So my work outside this website is _one_ factor. There is also the fact that I am getting better in my writing skills every day. So of course, when my writing becomes more sophisticated, it takes long amounts of planning, such as whether to use foreshadowing here, or use certain types of syntax to different levels of effect. I'm not looking to make this a short story here, I'm trying to introduce a shared universe here. That alone takes an impressive amount of work! **

**So, to wrap it up. I'm sorry for the wait. But make no mistake! I have every intention to finish this story, and go beyond. Plus, tonight is the night FusionFall Retro may get released, what lucky timing! Make sure to review, its important that reviews be made here for this story's sake and survival in this already large community. Thank you, and I'll see you in either FusionFall Retro tomorrow, or next time, next week in the next chapter! Later!**

 **FusionFall and all associated characters are owned by Cartoon Network, Hanna-Barbera, Adult Swim, Turner Broadcasting, and all due owners of individual properties.**

 **NEXT CHAPTER: A FUTURE WITH FUSE**

 **-end transmission**


	2. A Future with Fuse

**Bold** = Emphasis/Commentary

 _Italic_ = Emphasis/small memory moment

[] = Artificial Intelligence/Android Speech

* * *

Eyes widened, ears still recovering from shock, he sat up in a dizzy state. The world was spinning endlessly around him, and Ben was failing to recover. Luckily, his brain was doing the job for him. He opened his eyes wide open, hopefully to regain focus, and he did. He looked around and noticed something was clearly wrong, aside from scattered metal from the time machine.

The grass was greener than usual.

Not in the sense that it looked healthy, as a matter of fact it looked the opposite, the grass he was sitting on looked like it was decaying rapidly, with the 'green-ness' coming from a strange glow under the soil. Ben looked up in shock as he came to his senses, but not before a voice rang in his ear.

[Error: You have been sent much farther into the future than Dexter intended]

Ben shivered at this eerie and unsettling information, and soon he regained his senses. He looked up, and what he saw, was more than startling.

* * *

 **THE PAST: MAY 22 - 2014 - TECH SQUARE**

"You are an **IDIOT**!"

Contrary to what Dexter believed, Diva had always acknowledged her brother's annoyance from her actions. She always shrugged it off, knowing that he could just rebuild and re-program, making it seem like she couldn't care any less than she apparently did. But this, she knew she did something wrong. Tears were already streaming down her face, both in fear and in self-pity. She had not only destroyed what could've been the greatest advancement in technology since - forever, but from the sound of it she may have just caused a friend to disappear into nothing. It made her think how much she actually cared about her brother's work.

She shook with regret as she said "I-I don't understand-"

" **No of course you do not understand**! You cannot even understand, after _all these years_ , D.D., that anything with metal or buttons could cause something to violently _explode_ or worse, get yourself _killed_!" Dexter responded, his shouting being so loud it could be heard from the outside of the lab.

"I-I'm sorry-"

"You cannot even care to recognize the world around you! Did you even KNOW that you had walked into my lab (how the hell did you walk into my lab)? DID YOU?!"

Diva didn't know what to say, she opened her mouth to say something apologetic, but nothing came out. Before she can actually say anything, Dexter cuts in.

"DO NOT say anything...it wouldn't mean much anyway..." Dexter retorted as he looked upon the remains of his time machine. He had little time to mourn for what may have been Ben's death as he began to consider the many costs of this turn of events, such as repair, insurance, replacement, overtime salaries for the rest of the scientists, and confronting Ben's mother about his fate. He shivered as he thought about that, it was sad enough that the Tennyson family was already dealing with one loss, and now another. As he was contemplating these costs, another scientist walked slowly towards Dexter, seeing the machine's remains too. Her face differed from his, instead of contemplating, she was questioning.

"Dr. McPherson...are you alright?"

"I..." He paused to get all his irrational feelings out of the way, "I'm fine, thank you Dr. Test".

She took a moment to breathe, she always did find it intimidating when he was angry. But Susan didn't let her guard down, as she knew that when Dexter used positions instead of names, he was still irritated. God help anyone who caught him irritated. "Well then, are we going to cover this up or tell the public?" she inquired.

"We cannot tell our material supplier, he would have our heads for this," Dexter replied, and after a deep breath he decided that, "We're keeping this covered up, the media could ruin our reputation with a single article, and next thing you know their opinions will spread like the Bubonic Plague in the 12th century."

Susan sighed in relief from this, as she was not hoping on-

"But this does _not_ mean that we will stop here."

-risking hundreds of thousands of dollars on fixing this dreadful situation.

"Make sure that this does not get out of this building, yes, but start rebuilding this machine immediately, leave the experimental matter acquisition as well as the necessary programming and calculations to me, and me alone," he said with confidence, but his confident speech was hiding a deep sense of worry, "and for all those wondering if this means higher payment, it does _not_. It means lower pay, because if anything, money should be the _least_ of _your_ problems!"

A large amounts of groans and sighs came in response to this unfairness. Dexter quickly responded to their sound of annoyance, "If you want someone to blame, blame her." he said as he pointed to Diva, "Now let us get back to work! Dexbots, please escort my _dear sister_ out of my laboratory." Dexter said, under gritted teeth.

All the scientists and managers returned to their roles, most of them out of frustration. As Dexter walked away, the Dexbots began to approach Diva slowly, in fear that she would jump away, but instead, she stayed. All in all, it really messed with their programming. Diva looked to the Dexbots, realizing that even standing around and doing nothing still broke her brother's tech, it didn't help improve her frenzied state. She looked at him with shock, now in full realization as to what she had actually done. To confirm, she asked, "Dexter? W-What did that button do?"

Much calmer now, Dexter stopped in his tracks and refused to look back at her. He thought maybe he should tell her, that one of his oldest friends was either sent into the future with no means of travelling back, or worse he was disintegrated by the spilling of the radioactive energy the metal surface was equipped with. Instead, he continued walking, disappointed that his sister, who was 1.4x older than him, and although 212 times more ignorant than him, was still unable to figure out something so simple.

Then again, would he expect anything else?

* * *

 **THE FUTURE: FEBRUARY 4 - 2015**

Green, lots of green. Evil green everywhere.

That was all his mind could attempt to grasp at the sight of a giant planet in the sky that was fused to other planets that was DANGEROUSLY close to Earth, and he saw this having _already_ come out of his earlier state of shock.

Ears now fully capable of listening, Ben turned around after hearing a strange bubbling sound, which came from an equally strange pool of green ooze. The ooze looked familiar, something he had encountered before, maybe? Then it came to him.

No way...

Was this really the same substance from all those years ago? The same one they fought with that transducer thing?

But it was destroyed...

...was it?

He didn't know what to think of it. He felt a sickness in his stomach, it overcame him as fast as the rubble from the destroyed grey ground floated into the apocalyptic green sky. He didn't know what this sickness was, maybe it was the repercussions from the "time jump error", or maybe it was the blood-curdling sight...of all this. Ben looked around and saw many of the destroyed buildings of Tech Square, covered in the same green substance that he was so dangerously close to. As he turned around, he saw an entire sea comprised of this ooze, and went on for miles and miles ahead. Could this be causing all the destruction around him?

What if we played right into their hands, Ben thought, what if what happened back in 2009 was just the beginning?!

Suddenly, an explosion went off elsewhere, crumbling a building in the process, but Ben was too distracted to notice the sound. He gazed at this endless sea, wondering what exactly was happening to the world. Was it dying? It didn't feel like it. Did this have to do with some man-made experiment? No, otherwise there wouldn't be a giant super-planet in the sky. He continues to ignore the obvious, unfortunately ignoring the giant building, which was toppling over, that was about to crush him.

Just as he was turning around, to see what was forming the shadow behind him, he felt himself being pushed to the side, and later the crumbling of a building now behind him. He looked up to thank his savior, only to find...

...it was Number Five?! Ben didn't know how to react, he hadn't seen her since they were kids! Not to mention, she looked radically different. She retained her signature red cap, gold earrings, and blue color-scheme but sported some kind of metal armor that covered most of her body, even her clothes, which itself looked like it was altered to be a second set of armor. On her forearms were yellow colored armguards, and on her chest armor was a spray-painted '5' in white. After close observation, Five came to realize who she was looking at.

"Holy cannoly! Ben, is that you?!"

"Not now Number Five! We need to - oh my glob! Ben?!" shouted someone off in the distance, who later revealed himself to be...Finn?! Ben couldn't get his head around it, where did Finn come from?! Shouldn't he be in Ooo? What happened to Ooo if he was here?! So many questions populated Ben's noggin it actually hurt!

Finn snapped out his trance, and he returned to his uncharacteristically serious demeanor, "Look, we gotta get movin'! Ben, you should follow us, I've got a hunch on who you are!"

Who _he_ was?

What did that even mean?! As Finn and Five made their way up the cluttered pieces of rubble, he decided that he needed to ask Computress what the hell was even happening!

"C-Computress!" Ben asked, with urgency, but to his horror, he was met with static. Something screwed up his communications server. " _C-Computress?_ " he asked again, his false of hope overtaking his senses. But quickly the reality of the situation he had found himself in seeped into his mind.

He had no way of going back home, or even contacting family. Tears threatened to form in his tear ducts, and something was making his throat heavy.

...

No, he thought, this wouldn't be how Ben 10 goes out!

He readied his omnitrix and set it to Heatblast, and made his way up the rubble, where he found Finn and Five to be back-to-back, fighting those same spawn monsters from before, only they looked bigger, and more powerful than before. Even worse, it seemed like the spawns were winning. Without hesitation, Ben took out the omnitrix, and with a click, a pulse, and one slightly painful morph later, he was covered in charred lava rocks with a flaming hair rising up.

"All right you damn aliens!" Ben shouted, channeling his aggression about the situation into his powers, "This time, you STAY PUDDLES OF SLIME!"

He extended his arms to call upon this form's pyrokinetic powers as he closed his eyes, expecting to open them to find the enemies before him back in puddles, but suprisingly, they didn't.

Not even an ember could find its way on the other side! What was going on?!

His continuing confusion was halted when Finn jumped up almost as if out of Nowhere and kicked a spawn back, where it was immediately shot by Number Five. Finn then quickly bent down, stretched his leg to the right and kicked a fusion spawn away from Ben, while using his sword to attack the larger spawn, plunging it with a goo-splattering momentum. The smaller spawn quickly lunged at Finn, only to be blasted, as if on que, by Five.

"You good?" Finn asked the seemingly powerless superhero, who looked at his hands as if the answers to his questions were scribed there. Ben looked up to Finn's battle-scarred, yet somewhat still _positive face_. This was an _apocalypse_! Why was he smiling?! Ben couldn't take a second more.

"ARRRGGGGHHH!" Ben screamed in frustration, his molten hands clutching his molten head like a ball. Finn took his hand back as his smile faded into a look of confusion.

"I just tried to use Heatblast's powers, I tried incinerating them!" exclaimed Ben, "Why isn't anything working?!"

Finn drew a slightly puzzled look, widening his eyes and curving his lips. He was expecting a question more like 'what the hell is going on'. "It's gotta be this un-bombastic atmosphere, those terrafusers must've polluted the air with fusion matter, so now they can control how **he** wants things to go out." said Finn.

"Who's **he**?!"

Before Finn could answer, a small beep came from his pocket, out of which he pulled a circular-like device which he looked at for a few moments before turning to Five, then back at the device. Ben didn't realize what it was Finn held in his hands before he heard the familiar beeps that another well-known device made.

Was that a NanoCom?

NanoComs were made by Dexlabs as the ultimate accessory. By utilizing a French-developed online safe-space network, the NanoComs could digitize any personal belongings and transport it to this space for safe-keeping and later use. Aside from having an app store of its own, it also had a long-distance communications feature, one of the most advanced GPS tracking systems on the planet, and could also remain up-to date on one's personal health status. It was universally successful and had a wide range of uses.

But they weren't built for use in wars, or anything like that for that matter.

"Number Five! We seriously need to keep moving!" Finn said, while he winced at the sound of another building collapsing behind him.

"Finn, if that hunch you've got is true, then Numbuh 5 thinks this is more important than a few meet ups." Number 5 said. She then looked at Ben, still as Heatblast. "Now that that's over with, Ben, what's the last thing you remember?" she asked.

"N-NO! You answer my questions first! Too much has happened today, _way_ too much for a normal psyche to handle practically, especially when he or she CAN'T handle it practically because he or she's being cut off nearly EVERY DAMN SEC-"

Before he could say anymore, Ben was interrupted by a computer-like voice from Five's NanoCom.

[Warning: More hostiles - incoming]

Finn and Five became less relaxed from this alert, and realized that they had more company ahead of them.

"SEE!" exclaimed Ben.

Suddenly, an animal-like thing jumps down from the toppled building on the left, and tackled Number Five to the ground, growling and chomping at her while she resisted its unbearably strong grip on her forearms. Finn delivered a flying kick to the beast, sending it back. The creature hesitated, allowing Ben to have a clearer look at it.

It was a three-headed dog. Not a real one, of course, it was a mechanized model, which looked not only like a three-headed dog, but like an assortment of tech was clobbered together or reformatted to form a body. Fusion matter was splattered on its torso, and on each of its snouts were glowing red eyes that could kill all on their own. It slowly turned around, revealing itself, and with all three of its heads, it gave a mighty roar.

Almost immediately, Finn and Five charged into battle, both equipped with powerful weapons, keeping the creature down. Meanwhile, Ben continued trying to spark at least a small flame, but to no avail his luck was grim. He struggled to find a solution, some kind of loophole that could make this problem go away. Maybe he could turn into another alien? No, if the reason behind his bad luck was the fusion matter in the atmosphere, who knows what kind of effects that could have on, say, Diamondhead, or Chromostone? Or worse, Alien X? So what could he do as Heatblast in order to use his powers?

He'd have to release something into the air, something highly flammable...

...like another flame?

"Hey guys?!" Ben shouted to the preoccupied heroes.

Five, who was being majorly beaten, had resorted to using her pistols as shields. "L-little busy over here!" she responded, with a clear struggle in her voice.

"I need a flame - any flame! Anyone got a lighter or something?!"

Five started to back away, moving towards Ben, "Finn! Keep the Cyberus busy!"

"'Keepin' busy' is my middle name!" said Finn, retaining the joyous smile on his face, "Or was it HUCKLEBERRY?!" he continued as he jumped and kicked the Cyberus in the left-most snout, kicking the rest down.

Five proceeded to look through her NanoCom vigorously, clearly getting irritated, while with her other hand she kept firing at the three-snouted monstrosity. After a few moments, she was able to finally find what she was searching for, crafting a clever grin on her face. What she pulled out was a pistol-like rifle, not too short to be a rifle and not to long to be a pistol. It had a purple and desert-sand color scheme, with a green range that was now aimed directly at Ben.

As soon as she delivered a few shots to the Cyberus behind her, which was being surprisingly well-handled by Finn, Number Five made not a single moment to think about what she was doing and shot Ben with a single blazing ray of heat coupled with liquid plasma.

What Ben felt next was like he could ignite the whole planet if he had to. As he felt thousands, if not millions, of stray heat particles flowing through his molten, and now glowing body, he couldn't help but saying:

"HAH! See _this_?! HERO TIME!" The next thing Ben knew was him releasing what he could assume was a massive buildup of heat. He directed it towards the Cyberus, nearly hitting Finn, and blasting the three-headed dog through the toppled building behind it as if he was swatting a fly. The heat blast tore the creature apart until it became nothing but dust in the wind. Ben found himself collapsing in utter relief that his idea worked. He held his hands high up in the air in victory for the world to see, well, what was supposedly left of the world anyway. His excitement came to a halt when he heard the classic recharge signal coming from the badge on his chest. Damnit, he thought as he stared at his now human hands, he should have conserved power by reverting back to human form when he had the chance!

"Shmow-zow!" exclaimed Finn. "Nice shot!"

"Yuh-huh..." said Ben nonchalantly, seemingly tired out.

While Ben sat down, Five took out her NanoCom, and zapped the igniting gun back into her storage folder. She extended her arm to lend a hand to Ben, which he waved away, and stood up. Finn walked towards the two and turned his head toward the KND operative.

"So, Number Five? Think its true?" asked Finn.

"He doesn't know _jack_ about fusions, and he's got an Omnitrix on his damn wrist," responded Five, "no way in letter 'H' it ain't him."

"What are you two talking about?" asked Ben, meeting the gaze of two swiveling heads.

"Ain't it obvious? You've been missing for the whole war!" exclaimed Finn.

"I wouldn't say missing...more like-"

"Time travel?" said both Finn and Five, surprising Ben with their knowledge on "recent" current events. He responded with a quaint nod, and both their eyes lit up like the fourth of July.

"Today must be Numbuh Five's lucky day!" she said as another couple buildings collapsed in the background. "You're the Ben from the past that Dexter told us about. Alright, we gotta get you to safety and Sector V! There's no time to lose!"

Nothing felt better than to know that Dexter had tried to solve the problem, and the possibility that he could be alive? Ben felt goosebumps go down his skin at the thought that he may get to leave this nightmare faster than he arrived. But then he remembered the scattered and destroyed parts of the time machine, and realized it would be harder than he could imagine.

Ben didn't know what he should do. Should he help?

Even if he didn't want to, he wouldn't have a choice. This was the future, after all...

"We can spare a few, Five." said Ben, in a much calmer and alert voice, "I want to know what happened."

Five looked perplexed, she didn't know how Ben would take their current state, but it wasn't like she had another choice. "Look up in the sky." she said pointing to the mess of a super-planet above, " _That's_ Planet Fusion, ruled by some nasty guy named _Fuse_! Fuse has covered the world in that gross green goo, and those disgustin' fusion spawns are wrecking everything!"

Being a seasoned Plumber-in-training meant understanding even the most abridged explanations, but that was just not anything close to helpful. Seeing the confusion on Ben's face, Finn stepped in to explain further.

"Well, yeah, whatever Five said, but you should see what they can do first-hand. Fuse's monsters have adapted to our planet, they're taking on familiar forms, bonding to pretty much anything based on the Earth's nature and environment. Worst off, they use these terrafusers that can terraform and infect the Earth with fusion matter. If..." Finn halted for a second, looking down in what seemed to be fear, which was rare to see in him. "if the infection gets bad enough, the terrafusers locked here will connect directly with Fuse, and before we know it Planet Fusion will absorb _our_ world."

Ben took a moment to digest all of that. He looked back at the sea of fusion matter that now covered what remained of Earth, realizing that this was zero hour, and there wouldn't be an 'Earth' after. He turned back to the two seasoned heroes, with a face of question once that once was masqueraded by a face of relaxation.

"These fusions...they're from before, right?" Ben asked, looking at Number Five, who gave a small nod. Ben couldn't make sense of it, the last terrafusers didn't do _this much damage_.

"I don't get it, then what were those terrafusers from 5-no-6 years ago?"

"They..." Five paused and gave a small sigh, "...were beacons."

 _B-blast...beacon! It is c-coming, for us...all._

Ben widened his eyes in shock, he couldn't believe it; Mojo was telling the truth all those years ago. It was why he was missing, it was why there were literal monkeys raining down from the sky, he was investigating... _this_. Damn it, he thought, why didn't that electro-thingamajig cannon fire earlier?! Maybe then none of this would have happened!

Before Ben could say or think anything else, Five's NanoCom buzzed with an alert. She pulled it out of her pocket and stared into it for a moment, turning to Finn with a small nod. Finn realized what she meant, and quickly turned back to Ben, "Hey, we've gotta go now. You think you're up to speed?"

"Yeah...pretty much." he replied.

"Alright, then-wait, do you have a NanoCom?"

Ben pulled out his Com out of jacket pocket, and held it up for Finn's view. Contrary to what he was thinking, the look on Finn's face was slightly dissapointed.

"Oh right, you don't have the newer model." said Finn, "Here, take mine."

"Why?" asked Ben, "Won't you need it?"

Finn gave a shrug as he threw it into Ben's hands, "I'm gonna die here anyway, buddy! Its just important that _you_ make it to safety before all the others. Besides, that model has features that were made just for this war, so yeah." he said, "Remember, you're going to want to collect that fusion matter, as much as you can, it's super important that you do."

As they left the scene, Ben stared down at his new NanoCom, wondering what he should do now. Then, right after, he gets a message on the device, signified by the blinking red light on the top left button. With the press of a button, he popped open the message monitor; it was coming from the future...

...Number Two?!

 _"Anybody there? I need help here -bzzt- transmitter's gone_ _-bzzt-_ _"_

Ben tried to send a message back, but found it was one way only. That figured, if the fusions and their fusion matter are sentient alone then they have eyes and ears possibly everywhere, so short range communication was the better bet. Ben winced as another explosion got set off, doing more unseen amounts of damage, and soon ran towards Number Two.

* * *

One of the things that he loved about being his sector's chief communications officer was that he could have ears everywhere. He could listen in on KND transmissions, even the ones not limited to his sector (he'd have to thank the TND for that position...if he lives) and be the most alert during missions. It made him feel...omnipresent...whatever that meant...

But for this moment, he felt so ashamed of himself. How could he be bested by a stupid fusion monster?!

With a Pop-Gun in hand, and hiding behind a S.C.A.M.P.E.R, Number Two attempted to look behind the shuttle, but nearly got his face blasted off doing so. That oil ogre was firing at him non-stop; Two was just lucky his ship had its shields turned on to protect him, but he knew that the shields weren't going to last long with this amount of heavy fire.

Then, as if a light show had been turned on, the oil ogre stopped firing at him, and instead started to fire elsewhere. Two looked back to see who it was, and much to his surprise, it was an alien. An alien that resembled a large tiger, and was covered in fur, and had a familiar-looking hourglass symbol on its chest.

It can't be, Two thought.

"Ben?!" Two said; he couldn't help but stand up in shock, only to duck down from another blast. "Is that really you?!"

"What you didn't get the memo?!" screamed the angry and furry alien.

"Well, sure I did, but-"

"Aarghh!" Ben shouted after getting hit in the shoulder, "Lemme tell ya somethin' about-"

Before Ben could say anything else in a breathless alien rant, he was yet again blasted, this time square in the chest, resulting in Ben's mighty wrath to quickly go away.

"Oh come on!" he shouted in frustration, and quickly hid behind the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. with Number Two. The first thing he did after sitting down was check to see if the blast had hacked the omnitrix, or if it just blasted him out of his form. Luckily for him, it was the latter.

"What happened, dude?" asked Ben, "I thought the Kids Next Door didn't want anything to do with this."

"Well, sure," replied Two, "but then they attacked and nearly destroyed our treehouse."

"Wasn't that 6 years ago!"

"I wasn't talking about 6 years ago." said Number Two, to Ben's questionning, and later horrified surprise. "Seriously though, I could use some help over here. You up for it?"

Ben looked up high in the sky and down on the ground, but couldn't find any other superhero near them. "Dude, where's everyone else?" he asked, noticing the distinct lack of presence of a Number One, or Three, or Four.

"Either dead, or too busy to spare a second, go figure." the KND operative told the alien hero, a second was spared in his speech, which could unfortunately say a lot, especially with someone like Hoagie, "But this attack was no accident for sure. See that oil ogre over there?"

Ben looked through the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. glass to see a monstrous fusion, in no way, shape, or form resembling a fusion spawn. It didn't look much like an ogre to begin with, it looked more like a non-anthro alligator had grown arms and legs. Apart from that it had a metal harness with several small LED lights on it, and a matching helmet to go with. It hadn't moved far from the Terrafuser that it presumably spawned from, and in its hand, was something it was clutching rather tightly, the same way a mother would clutch her child to her chest: in a protective manner.

"It's using a 2x4 transmitter to broadcast our position. It's the thing that basically brought the fusions to our doorstep. Here in Tech Square, I mean, the first door was Mandark's fault." said Number Two, the disdain for the aforementioned being very poignant in his voice. "If we can get the transmitter, though, we may have a slight chance of saving Tech Square, and better yet, the rest of the world that's still intact."

"How can you be sure?"

"The transmitter was Number 274's, it could intercept all kinds of KND frequencies, it helped in battle against adults when more reinforcements were needed, and could also scramble the enemy's defense system and stuff like that. For the war, 274 gave it to me, and I modified it so we could all be connected on the same defense grid. If the fusions have it, it won't be long before that defense grid is gone, and so will we be."

"So we need to kill that monster and get the transmitter!" exclaimed Ben, but he was quickly held back by Two.

"We can't! If we kill the oil ogre, we could _break_ the transmitter. Number One would kill me, and so would Mandark!" Two replied, "Did I mention that without that transmitter, our defense grid is defense-less?!"

Ben looked down at the pavement of the cracked road, as if it would have the solutions for what to do written on itself. Before he knew it, an idea sprung to mind.

"Does it have any metal parts? Anything magnetic?"

"Of cour-" Before Two could finish, Ben had already slammed the hourglass symbol on his wrist, transforming himself into another, different alien. This one had a metallic bronze color scheme to it, with lighter colored stripes covering it as if it were reflections of the body's surface. To top it off, it had a _floating_ head, with thick green glowing goggles and no mouth. Number Two widened his eyes in sight of Ben's new form, his goggles' lenses visibly moving with them.

"Wait here!" he said.

Ben then found himself exposing himself to the ogre-like fusion. The creatures glistening red eyes staring at him, like a lion eyeing its prey behind a rock, only there was no rock, and the lion was out in the open.

"Metal!" screamed Ben, catching the ogre's attention, "Meet magnetism!" The alien hero held his arms up to face the fusion, and before he knew it, electro-magnetic waves were already vibrating off of him, like a flock of birds with a phone line. The oil ogre fell as if it tripped, and as the metal was meeting the magnetism, the oil ogre lost grip of the transducer, with Ben catching it and repelling it to Number Two, who hurried quickly into the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. However, the ogre found itself continuing to come towards Ben. The hero realized what was happening, the harness on its chest was also made of metal. The ogre wreathed in pain as its harness was being ripped from the fusion matter on its body, stray amounts of goo were sticking to it, stretching with the piece of metal. Ben realized his mistake as the fusion was nearly 15 feet away from him, and let go of the magnetic pull.

The oil ogre lied there, seemingly recovering from the pain it had undergone. Ben looked down and failed to comprehend what had just happened. Fusions couldn't feel pain before, in fact, human attacks didn't have _any_ affect on them. So why did this one feel it? Ben had to ask Two or anyone else when he escaped this mess, but those thoughts were cut off very shortly...

...as the oil ogre lifted its head with a flame in its eyes, a flame of rage.

Oh, son of a gun, Ben thought.

The oil ogre began firing random and aimless blasts as Ben scampered back into the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. The monster was very clearly enraged by Ben's inconsistent offensive, and was still clutching its harness as if it was its chest.

Once inside, Ben quickly held the door shut with his back, to which the oil ogre was at this point punching the door. Its force being so powerful that it knocked Ben onto the floor. Luckily enough, the S.C.A.M.P.E.R's herculean density prevented the door from being destroyed so easily. While Ben was dealing with the oil ogre, Number Two was at the ship's pilot seat, nearly crushing the radio receiver in his hands, the word 'mayday' was stamped on the device with ink as his hand lifted from it.

Ben was struggling maintaining the door that was being pounded by the fusion on the other side, its strength being that of a battery ram. Thoughts raced through his mind (for the fifth time already), how would he be able to do this? There must have been a way to fix the damaged ship, maybe even give it an upgrade.

Luckily for him, there was, and he pulled out watch and quickly switched to the alien DNA sample of a Galvanic Mechamorph.

"C'mon, Upgrade, _c'mon_!" Ben shouted to the omnitrix, as if he expected a response. With no wait, he slammed the Omnitrix as hard as he could into its metallic strap; he could feel the very hairs on his skin shrink into his now changing skin, which was quickly turning into mush. The mush that was now a part of him developed glowing neon-green motherboard lines that led up to the hourglass symbol that was now on his chest.

"YES! Thank you Upgrade, thank you watch!" Ben exclaimed.

Ben made no haste diffusing himself into the doors of the S.C.A.M.P.E.R, the entire ship now was covered in the same glowing motherboard lines that Upgrade famously sported. Number Two jumped in his seat at the sight of this takeover, and a neon circle appearing on his transmission monitor.

"Whoah! What just-"

"Well don't just sit on your ass! Try and use me!" Ben exclaimed to the strangely frightened KND operative. He had seen the form before, why the startle? Whatever, Ben thought.

Just then, the oil ogre had began banging on the cockpit glass, itself insulated and shielded, but not indestructible. It continued flailing its arms, desperately trying to break the now Galvan-ized glass. Ben didn't want to admit it, but its random punching hurt like hell. Number Two, on the other hand, had a much more mundane reaction.

"I'm getting too old for this superhero stuff..." said Number Two, "I didn't even want to play superhero in the first place!"

"Forget that crap!" exclaimed Ben, "Fire me! Fire me now!"

Number Two made no more hesitation to take control of the now neon-lighted console, his hands jumping and pressing all kinds of buttons, the sounds of various hatches opening up, especially on top of the cockpit, were evident. As was the sound of a thousand bullets, as if made from steel. The oil ogre was thrown back, having lost most of its balance, but didn't at all wait to charge back into the fight.

Its efforts were futile though, as with the press of a button, Number Two launched the ship's side missile, sending the monster to ride it all the way towards the sky.

The next sound that was evident: an explosion.

Ben had to (figuratively) sit down for this one, it was one hell of a rush for sure. But Two seemed to be in something akin to complete shock. Was he paralyzed from fear, or relief? Probably the latter. Ben, after pausing himself, thought it was-

"What a waste of - _oil_!" said Ben.

-a good idea to make a _pun_. Wow.

Two blinked and gave him (on the monitor) a quizical look, "You've...got a really long way to go, 'grasshopper'."

"What? What're you talking about? That was great!" Ben responded, "Admit it, you were going to say that one."

"No...maybe...not." said Number Two, "W-whatever, did the oil ogre cause any damage to the S.C.A.M.P.E.R?"

"Just a few bits of damaged hardware, like on the door," said Ben, still connected to the ship's mainframe, "don't worry, though. I'm patching things up right now...including an upgraded communications relay!"

Two didn't know how to thank him, he could only say "Nice work! 'Didn't even know you could _do_ that." Just then, he got an alert on his NanoCom; Ben, as he separated himself from the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. and reverted back to his human form, could only make out a few words, like "trapped", "infected zone" and "lair". He pondered what those things actually meant, before coming back to the oil ogre.

"Two, when I accidentally attracted that thing's harness, it looked like it was in a lot of...pain. But I thought these things can't feel pain without imagination energy."

"It's because it bonded to an external object. When they bond to random stuff like animals, plants, metal, or wood, they get a pain factor. The fusion monsters directly from Planet Fusion, like the spawns, they can only be killed with imagination energy." Two said, still readying the S.C.A.M.P.E.R for something, "But, the pain factor is real small with these spawns that bonded to something. It's really hard to hurt them alone, but a couple other things help out."

"What other things? Imagination energy?"

"Nope. Something else entirely. Look, Dexter can explain it to you later," Two responded, "But first we have to get him."

"Where do we find him?"

"We're not gonna find him," Two said as the S.C.A.M.P.E.R lifted off the ground, "We have to rescue him."

* * *

 **THE PAST: MAY 22 - 2014 - TECH SQUARE**

[COMPUTRESS OPERATIONAL]

Computress's source code flowed through the wires of Dexlabs, going back and forth with simulated sweat dripping down her console screen.

[Priority Alpha - BRING BACK TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT SUBJECT: BEN TENNYSON]

It was the third time she had re-stated her objective, she couldn't figure it out the first two times, so why try now? Computress shrugged it off as her latest patch update from Dexter.

She ran the 42nd simulation to determine a possible solution to reverse the outcome of the time travel.

When Diva "D.D" McPherson did was disable the Temporal Flux linked to the fuel source, removing the time-jump's ability to lock on to a specific point in the timeline, meaning that Ben could have been at any point in history. But that wasn't possible, as Computress had already cross-referenced her findings with all historical records on the internet. There was no evidence to suggest that Ben went back in time, but rather forward. Computress theorized that while she was shorted out in communication with the subject, she still had connection to him, just through a bad channel. If Computress could trace her end of the channel, then perhaps she could trace the other end. Of course, she was successful, and the date read was February 4th, 2015.

What grinded her gears was that she _already_ knew all of this information. Even as a generally emotionless program, she hated having to go through statistics constantly. She forced herself to move on to the next part of the problem: how they were going to get him back from 15 months into the future. The Test twins' reports theorized that if, because the time machine itself was destroyed, he was technically displaced in time, they could build a machine that could extract someone out of that time. They requested to trial such a concept in their own house and lab, with their own subject in their younger brother, but they have been struggling since. She knew even then, that the idea was impossible, as the displacement time period was now apart of the subject's own timeline, so to extract them from _their own timeline_ could cause a very dangerous paradox. But she let them continue, as it was nice to see them have some hope, and also because at least they were trying to solve the problem.

Because if there was one thing that was in her programming, it was that problems could never solve themselves. So she kept running simulations, no matter how many uncomfortably repetitive error signs she received.

* * *

 **THE FUTURE: FEBRUARY 4 - 2015**

Ben sat uncomfortably in his seat, not in the way that most people would when they would sit next to a complete stranger on an plane, nor in the way they would with embarrassing family. No. He was sitting uncomfortably in his seat because of everything he saw, that had lead to this point.

He (mostly) knew how to keep his cool, and put on a calm expression. He did it when Number Five and Finn were explaining this mess, he did it when he fought the oil ogre, as a matter of fact, he was doing it right there. But he couldn't do it when he first arrived in this future. Was it the pressure? The rush? The feeling of something looming over him, fate towering and staring into his eyes. What could it be?

Ben looked out the window, asking the outdoors for answers once again. But all he could see was the color green.

The hero looked at the operative, who was focused on the flying, and asked, "You said that we had to go rescue Dexter."

"Which we are."

"But from what, exactly? A larger fusion monster?"

"No, a Fusion Doppleganger." said Number Two, gaining Ben's interest. Realizing he still needed to explain, Two continued. "Since the terrafusers are bonding and infecting Earth, making it more and more a part of Planet Fusion, I guess the same works with Fusion Spawns. All it needs is a DNA sample, and it becomes this...dark, twisted, and even corrupted version of yourself. It has all your powers, your weapons, your clothing, even your face, and the weirdest part? It's not technically shapeshifting."

"How long does that whole assimilating thing happen?"

"A day or two."

What?! But that can't be! Even if its got an abnormally fast production and growth system, every organism in the universe with something that fast would still take _decades_ just to reach a form resembling an adult. So how can one species, after assimilating matter, do _all_ of that in the span of a _few days_? "But that's biologically impossible-"

"-for us, and for the rest of the species in the universe, as you guys in the hazmat suits are talking about," Ben found himself taken aback by Number Two's crude summary of the Plumbers. "But the fusions manage to do it faster, and we still don't know how. Add it to the list of other law-altering crap they've done."

They began flying over an area notable for it being the only tree clearing in Tech Square. But much like Tech Square itself, the place was a mess. Ben couldn't recognize it because of the lakes of fusion matter, or the twisted trees, but because it wasn't even built in his time.

"Where are we flying over?" Ben asked.

"Galaxy Gardens, now the Tech Square Infected Zone." said Number Two, towards a questioning Ben in the back. It was clear that he didn't know what an 'infected zone' was, though, but he tried to hide it, much to total failure. "That's what the most infected areas on the planet are called. Normally its when too many of Fuse's Terrafuser machines are in the same place, or if there's a large enough terrafuser; it causes a massive amount of fusion matter to be produced, which alters the gravitational pull of the area. Fusion matter's completely whacko inside."

"Containment Shields? For quarantine?"

"Yeah, 'couple o' nerds tinkered around with them, now they can actually contain the infection and stop it from spreading into the populated areas. But with Planet Fusion getting closer and all, those shields won't be doing much good soon." It was quite obvious that Number Two was holding back his anxiety, there was a large lump in his throat, trying hard to come out.

"You alright, Hoagie?"

"Yeah, 'm fine," he said, "it's just...y'know, I didn't think this is how it would end for me...or anybody..."

Ben didn't know what to say, as he felt a bit of a lump in his throat too. If there was a chance for hope out there somewhere, where would they find it? In a hole? In a junkyard? In the sea of fusion matter, the very thing they were fighting against?

There was hope alright, hope for the enemy. What made matters worse was the thought of how they "acquired" that hope.

A wave of energy caused the vessel to mildly shake, and a visible and seemingly solid part of the shield passed through like a ghost. Two turned around to Ben and nodded, meaning they had made it into the infected zone, and were set to land shortly.

But something still didn't feel right to Ben about all of this. There wasn't any sign of a trap for sure, but after everything that had just happened within the last 30 minutes, Ben suspected something was happening that was making all the humans or heroes...rush for some reason. He called back to Finn saying that 'he was going to die there anyway', he thought that was just sarcastic, or some kind of anti-euphemism that Finn would normally make. But Number Five had actively pushed to go somewhere. So it was clear that they were rushing.

But what could they possibly rushing for? Sure it's the end of the world and all, but the only time someone would be rushing in a battle would be if...

...oh no...

* * *

There was no quantifiable or qualifiable way to sugar-coat the situation.

Dexter was screwed.

He was screwed so deep, he could be mistaken for an actual screw.

He continued to hide behind the collection of stalagmites as if it was some type of a fort. He knew that they had fusion matter running through its internal structure, and could fall apart if it wanted to, or worse, if it could form some crazy abomination made out of stalagmites. Yet he continued to hide from the Fusion that slowly searched for him, for whatever it would have been worth.

But what he had hoped the most for was that his message was sent. If there was any bright light in these deep dark caverns, it was in that.

But what came out of the fusion portal a few moments later was much more than hope could have ever offered.

Number Two of the Kids Next Door; their lead technician, pilot, and communications officer...

...and Ben Tennyson, wielder of the Omnitrix, non-acting intergalactic peacekeeper, and also supposed to be _dead_.

The universe really seemed to have a way of removing light in one area, and letting a light shine in another, Dexter thought. Number Two quickly stood up and patted his clothes, while Ben was taking the time to acknowledge his surroundings. The alien hero, who was once again helpless on the floor looked up at the standing KND operative.

"Dude, how the hell were you able to do that?!" asked an unusually irritated Ben.

Two blinked at him, with no clue as to what he talked about. "Do what?"

"All you had to do was just touch the creepy tentacles, and now we're on our way to the _center of the Earth_!"

"What, interacting with the lair? Dexter can tell you that-"

" _You keep saying that as if there's not enough time to say anything_! It's the apocalypse! What the hell is there to keep asking _Dexter_ for?!"

"You know," Two responded, "...you can ask him yourself."

Two's head pointed toward someone behind Ben, to which he turned around saw a face that, for a while, he thought he would never see again.

Dexter. Freakin'. McPherson. In the same attire as always: a mad scientist-type lab coat, that was open enough to expose his black turtle-neck, a white belt with a bronze buckle, and black dress pants and shoes (seriously?).

"It is you!" said Dexter. Freakin'. McPherson, in a whispering tone. He was responded with a clasp of hands, and then a really tight hug.

"Thank god! There's someone who's actually sane here!" Ben exclaimed while still hugging, causing the KND operative behind him to huff in frustration.

"Hey! Who decided to use a giant magnet on an oil ogre just to get a transmitter?!" responded Two.

"Will you all keep it down?!" whispered Dexter, pushing himself away from Ben, with great irritation in his voice. Nothing out of the ordinary, "Fusion Buttercup is in the next room, we must stop it before it causes any more damage!"

"Then how about we go kick some alien ass!" exclaimed Ben.

"And then get out of this place as soon as we can-"

"OH COME ON!" Ben exclaimed. He lost his cool yet again, and unknowingly raised his voice, which was the _one_ thing Dexter told him _not_ to do. Moments later, eerie footsteps were heard, and later a literal shot in the dark, sending Ben flying backwards.

"Dammit!" said Dexter, "Two, get it on front!"

"Your front or my front?!"

" _Your_ _front_!" Dexter said, then turning to the three-quarters conscious Ben, "Ben, be useful, it's hero time!"

Before Ben could object to someone else using _his_ catchphrase, he suddenly felt another blast of energy hit his chest, and next he felt himself being thrust from the ground and onto the cave floor, yet again; he turned around to see what his attacker was and once he managed to focus on it, he saw...Buttercup.

Buttercup of the Powerpuff Girls?

But...something was horribly, _horribly_ wrong; it made Ben question why he confused this being for Buttercup in the first place. She was bigger in size, her skin was a very bubbly light green, her normal attire was completely black, and her eyes were glowing transluscent red. There were sparks of lightning that flew across her jaw that formed something akin to a smile, not the reassuring kind for sure. Her hands were shaking insanely, as were her feet, and head, as if there was something bothering her, or if there was something uncomfortable in her attire. But that wouldn't happen to her, no, these were shakes of insanity, of complete and utter cruelty. And she was not Buttercup.

Not she... _it_. _It_ was a fusion doppleganger. _The_ Fusion Doppleganger that was keeping Dexter busy.

Dexter took out a large, wrench-like staff and attacked Fusion Buttercup's legs, while Ben slammed the Omnitrix and became Big Chill, and attacked from above and aimed for its chest using its ice breath. Number Two took out a standard KND custard gun, and shot at its chest. It was a deadly combat, with the Fusion itself not restraining to fire some of Buttercup's laser vision back at the heroes; nobody noticed the thin flow of fusion matter that crept along the ground and entered the cage-fight in the battleground, and Number Two certainly didn't notice it be absorbed by the Fusion doppleganger. A roar of fury sounded out as Fusion Buttercup threw itself to Number Two, its legs were dripping fusion matter because of the damage sustained. With the KND operative firmly in its grip, Fusion Buttercup flew up and away from Dexter and Ben, and away from their efforts to get their friend back.

Number Two struggled, trying to pry off the Fusion's grip on his arms. Lightning cackled once again to form a smile around the supposed mouth of Fusion Buttercup. The next thing Number Two felt was pain, unimaginable pain that extended as far down to his feet, and as far up as the top layer of his neck. He didn't know what the Fusion was doing to him, he couldn't pin-point where this pain was coming from as it came closer and closer to his head and brain. But luckily for Number Two, its grip loosened, and the pain stopped almost immediately. It was still there, of course, but was severely dilated. Number Two opened his eyes to see that the Fusion was focused on something else.

"Hey!" screamed someone from behind the Fusion, causing it to turn around, and meet the stoic face of Big Chill.

Ben tackled the Fusion, releasing Two from its grasp. Ben breathed ice onto Fusion Buttercup's face, and proceeded to endlessly punch it in its (non-existent) guts with his cold fists. This resulted in Fusion Buttercup squirming and spasming violently, as the damage it sustained became too much to handle, it began to lose its form entirely. It sprouted tentacle-like extrusions from its chest, eight of them, one of which threw Ben across the cavern and against the wall, knocking him out, not only from impact, but from the rush too. He was panting heavily afterwords.

It threw one of its extrusions into Dexter and shattered a large stalagmite with another. Number Two burst from the side as the rubble hit the ground, nearly hitting Ben. Now armed only with a small pistol that greatly resembled a plank of wood with a mouse-trap duct-taped to another plank, a glowing piece of mush that looked a lot like ice cream, and a trigger attached to the bottom, Number Two jumped behind a stalagmite and made no hesitation to shoot at the Fusion.

But his efforts were once again foiled as Fusion Buttercup walked toward Two menacingly, and shoved him aside mercilessly. It made its way to a defeated, and now human, Ben. The hair began to fall off its head, clothes began to fuse into her body, resembling a smudge of different paint colors. Its eyes began to glow eerily as it flew up, ready to obliterate the alien hero. Suddenly, it stopped. Its head began to spasm uncontrollably, as did its body a few moments later. When she fell to her knees, Dexter stood, mightier and taller than ever before, holding the Fusion's torso with his torso, applying a high-voltage electric shock to her entire body, causing it to fall apart quite quickly.

Dexter removed his trident-like weapon from its body, and all three heroes stared down at the quickly melting monster. "She is finished." proclaimed Dexter.

"Opposite of everything, huh?" said a now fully alert Ben to Number Two. "That explains (pant) why she wasn't as tough as t-(pant) the real Buttercup!"

"Are you actually being serious right now?" said Number Two, holding his back like an old man, recovering from the massive amount of pain he endured.

"Ye-(pant) no, she was pretty freaking tough."

"Now, there is no time to lose, Ben, did you collect enough fusion matter from any time before?"

Oh crap, Ben thought, he forgot to do the one thing that Finn told him not to forget to do! Damnit, he thought, I should have remembered, but why didn't I?

"You do not have much, do you?" realized Dexter, "Very well, we must all accumulate our resources for this one."

"I-I don't understand," said Ben, "what are we doing?"

"Remember the extra-things I told you about that help us fight the fusions? You're about to find out about one of them."

"Unfortunately, Number Two, we only have enough time to concoct it." said Dexter. "Ben, do you have a NanoCom with a fusion matter meter?"

Ben was taken aback, he thought his friend would take the time to even catch up, or have a little small talk. But instead, he was jumping straight to work, just as always. Some people never change, thought Ben.

He paused for a moment before taking out Finn's NanoCom, and handing it to the scientist extending his hand. "Excellent, Number Two, we will need whatever fusion matter and imagination energy you have." Dexter popped out a holographic interface from his worn out, purple gloves, and began typing immediately, but not before tossing Number Two a set of beakers. He also pulled out his NanoCom, and realized a large pillar-like supercomputer on top of the melting Fusion. Two took a sample of the fusion matter, which was spliced with Buttercup's personal DNA, and inserted it (somehow) into the machine. Dexter's glasses were lighted from the holographic image in front of him, making look like the opposite of an idiot, which Ben had presumed earlier.

With a few more clicks on the keyboard, Dexter took a step back, the Fusion Matter began to rise from Fusion Buttercup's carcass, and began to then wrap itself around a sphere of energy on the top of the supercomputer; the sphere began to glow bright white, filling the darkness of the cavern, before glowing red. To Ben's wonder, he saw...

...a miniature version of Buttercup. Her clothing was like how she first met Ben, except with a dark green scarf of some kind with it, and it seemed like all of it was fused on to her body, her head was enlarged, and her overall appearance was more...cartoonish.

Like Buttercup was a cartoon to begin with, thought Ben as he mentally rolled his eyes.

"Success." said Dexter, with no grin, yet a sound of pleasantry. "Number Two, trap the Nano."

"Yessir." said Number Two, sarcastically. Taking Finn's NanoCom, he held it up high and a red laser shot off it, which caused the miniature Buttercup to glow red, and disappear. Ben's jaw dropped in horror, as he thought Dexter had just disintegrated a living, breathing being.

"DUDE!"

"Relax," said Number Two, "the Nano is safe, its main energy and everything that was in it was stored inside here." he continued as he gave the NanoCom back to Ben, who still didn't understand how they were able to do that.

"Mandark will have to explain the science to you, I'm afraid," said Dexter, somehow reading Ben's confusion, but not where it mattered most, "because there is not enough time for that."

"Okay, enough!" exclaimed Ben. Dexter and Number Two were both looking at him now, as if he'd done something wrong. Ben persisted anyway. "I want to know, why the hell are we rushing so much?! Why are you dragging me on with this stuff, when, as a Plumber by the way, **I have a right to _know_** **!** "

"Fine, you want the truth? You want to know why we are in such a rush?" exclaimed Dexter, walking towards Ben very fast. "Well then, do you feel it, Ben? The shifting in your shoes, the rumbling in the ground?" Ben took a step back, and realized that Dexter was right, the ground was rumbling and shaking more by every passing second.

"You did not time-jump into the battle of Tech Square, you time-jumped into its _evacuation_.", said Dexter, which shocked Ben as to what it meant for the situation; his suspicions being confirmed, even though he didn't want them to be, Ben continued listening. "This city has already been lost, and despite our best efforts, we cannot do anything. This city will crumble, and after this, the only safe place on the planet for you before Planet Fusion absorbs the world will be in the suburbs of Townsville and Bellwood."

"But you, Ben. You can undo _all_ of this. All the devastation. All the lives lost. All of everything," said Dexter, the grammatical error in the last part of his sentence being pronounced, because he _never_ made those. "if we can send you back to the past, none of this death and destruction will have ever happened. And between bright and well-known minds like Howard over there-"

"Hogarth."

"-we can manage this. We can save our world, for _good_."

Ben, having enough experience in being told overwhelming things; he took a step back, and finally understood the need to rush. The apocalypse was a scenario _without_ hope. There wouldn't be an even slight chance that everyone will get to live happily-ever-after. But here, he could change _everything_ , he could warn Dexter ahead of time, there could be extra resources to fight, there could be a much more cooperative resistance.

This really could save the world, _for good_.

"I'll do it." said Ben, "Now let's get outta here."

"I will have to stay back, unfortunately," said Dexter, surprising Ben and Number Two, and halting them in their steps toward the fusion portal. "There is an important set of data I must send to Mandark, and it is paramount that he receives them. I will try to meet up with you at the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Now go!" he said as the cavern began to shake more and more frequently.

And without hesitation, Number Two and Ben exited the Fusion Lair.

* * *

Number Two once again baffled Ben with his interaction with the tentacles of the fusion portal, but not enough to stray away from the mission at hand. Ben quickly grabbed hold of Two's arms, the same places that Fusion Buttercup held him in, causing the KND operative to wince in pain. Behind them, Tech Square was slowly sinking into the green sea of fusion matter; buildings were crumbling, soldiers were screaming, all of these were quickly silenced, as if they weren't there in the first place. Ben, who was looking around at the devastation, immediately turned back to Number Two.

"Two!" he said, "We need to extract everyone now!"

"But what if they're in the middle of someth-"

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!" Ben exclaimed. "We can't hold Tech Square anymore, right? We can deal with it later! But we need to go while we still can! So let's GO!"

At that instant, Numbuh Two understood what Ben meant. He pulled out his NanoCom, and said, "All Kids Next Door Operatives! You have the green light to lift off! Get us all out of here before it's too late!"

And then, as if the U.S. Navy came in, a platoon of S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s soared in a 'V' formation. Ben turned around to see the formation breaking and splitting off into different areas. It almost brought a smile to his face.

Not that long after, a group of two or three S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s began to land on the ground. The second they landed, both of them jumped onto the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s, firing at the monsters as they boarded. The spawns tried to bite on to the ledge, only to be met with a gun to the face. They then quickly took off towards the suburbs, which was already short on defenses itself, so they had to get there fast. As the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s landed, Numbuh Five, who was also on the S.C.A.M.P.E.R, instantly talked into her NanoCom, "Welcome aboard boys!"

"Whoever's flying, it's my turn!" shouted Number Two, as Ben and Number Five buckled themselves in. Suddenly, as if a toy, the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. halted. Something was keeping the ship from flying into the air. Ben quickly realized that it was the gravitational disturbances caused by the terrafusers infecting the Earth. But it didn't make much sense, the rubble was flying upwards when he last checked, so why was it holding them down? Then it hit him.

Fuse had control of not just the weather, but now the gravity of Earth as well, and he was toying with them all along. Making them believe they had a fighting chance. Ben believed that Fuse would probably use this move in the future, and made a mental note to remember it. Five, having also realized the same thing, shouted across the ship.

"Set up the anti-gravity generators NOW!"

"Working on it!" exclaimed Two. "Hold on to your lunchbox!"

And before anyone in the ship knew it, the ship was flying at its top speed, rocketing into the green sky, and staring danger right in its face. For a very long moment, all seemed fine, but of course, in the Fusion War, nothing stays fine forever. This was proven as a piece of building suddenly damaged the side of the hull, rocking the vessel and nearly knocking it off course.

"Incoming!" Number Two shouted as more large pieces of rubble began rising, and falling spontaneously. Needless to say, it was like a roller-coaster, only twice as intense, and 10 times more horrifying. The S.C.A.M.P.E.R. continued to rock back and forth as it rose higher and higher in the fusion matter-ridden atmosphere. The ship began to violently shake, fitting the intensity of the situation perfectly. Terrified expressions grew on all the KND agents, along with Ben, which resulted in a lot of squinting and gritting teeth. It may have been a roller-coaster ride, only this roller-coaster ride gave you the option out. Many were questioning what they were still doing in that ship, and others began praying as more rubble dented the hull.

Finally, the ship managed to leave the gravitational distortion field created by the terrafusers, allowing the ship to level, and allowing Ben, after pausing for a moment to catch his breath, to ask an important question.

"Is this all that's left?" Ben asked.

"There are a couple others in the other S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s, but the others...I don't know..." said Number Two, with much more pronounced sadness in his voice. This feeling echoed through the ship, creating a drift that could not be interrupted. Yet Ben had to know, he turned to Five, who's head was looking out the window, unsure of whether she was looking at herself, or former technological marvels sinking down into the infected sea of fusion matter.

Ben looked out the side of his window, and saw the crumbling headquarters of Dexlabs Inc, and realized that Dexter may have never made it out of the laboratory. He turned to the cockpit of the ship.

"Two? Dexter...is he on the other ship?"

Number Two turned around to face him, "We can't establish short-range contact right now, or it'll reveal our position. We'll find out when we land." Ben nodded back, and returned to facing the floor, noticing Number Five's feet also, he turned up to her.

"Finn?" Ben asked, wondering about the fate of his good friend; even if he wasn't seen with Five, he could only expect the best, since Finn was a skilled hero for sure. But Number Five didn't respond, and instead lowered her head, which left Ben to do the same. There was another moment of silence, much shorter than the last.

Ben always understood Number Five's coolness, she felt that she needed to be a role model, she felt herself to be the glue of her KND sector, and if she showed her emotions, the team would fall apart quickly. But _here_ , she had every right to show her emotions, most of her friends were dead now, so there was no need to be 'cool'. "You don't seem to be-"

"Y'know it wasn't just Finn who fought 'till the end, Numbuh One was down there too, and Numbuh Five knew him way longer than that kid from Ooo," she said, with a profound amount of distance in her voice, as if she was trying hard to act cool as always.

"So why-"

"So when you see so many of your friends get taken away, you get used to it...and then, you're cool with it." Number Five's wording may have euphemized the point she tried to get across, but it hit just as hard. Ben didn't know how to react, he didn't know what to say. For the first time in his life...

...he didn't know what to say.

Number Two was multi-tasking in the pilot's seat, one hand on the controller, and the other on the computer. He was talking to a hologram of someone, and their conversation could be heard "Mandark, please tell me that you got some kind, any kind, of message from Dex. Please."

"I keep telling you Hogarth, I never got anything like what you are describing," voiced the hologram of Simon Astronomonov, "But I can theorize what it was actually for. The time machine."

Ben chuckled a bit, it was always like Mandark could read Dexter's mind.

"Don't worry though," Mandark reassured, "I already knew the plans."

What should have felt like a sense of relief and joy, did not bode well for Ben. If the message was not sent in time, then tough luck. But if Mandark _knew_ what the message would have been all along, then Dexter _risked his life for **nothing**_?! Anger boiled inside Ben for Mandark's idiotic mistake. If long-range communication reduced the chances of location, then Mandark could have easily have been informed of Ben's arrival, and have asked everyone to pull out. But no, Mandark did the stupid thing, yet again!

"A-Alright, we're getting closer to Sector V," said Number Two, "We're gonna have to cut you off."

"Sure." said Mandark's hologram, before fading out. Two found himself to be sweating profusely, which was something that he, despite his appearance, didn't normally do. "Hey...F-Five, can you take the wheel?" he asked, "I'm not feeling too cool..."

"Yeah...sure..." she responded as she got up and took over from Two, who sat across from Ben. Whose head was still spinning. He couldn't feel his wrists because of the anger he felt. He wondered as to whether he should cut them off to make himself feel better, but without wrists, he had no place to put the omnitrix. No omnitrix, no hope. But he couldn't feel his wrists under this pressure anyway, so hope or no hope...

...what difference did it make?

* * *

 **THE PAST: MAY 23 - 2014 - SECTOR V TREEHOUSE**

Number Two loved his job; he loved his life. He could listen in on KND transmissions, even the ones not limited to his sector (he'd have to thank the TND for that position) and be the most alert during missions. It made him feel...omnipresent...whatever that meant...

Number Two ran his daily systems and communications check with ease, as his chair swiveled back and forth, he flipped the switches needed for authentication, control, and monitoring. And before he knew it, Sector V's communication systems were now in sync with the rest of the KND frequencies on Earth.

But was his work truly done? Oh no. He had to establish contact with the Moon Base next.

Number 362 had changed her codes recently, so this one would be tricky. Two pulled his magic on the keyboard, and before he himself knew it, the Moon Base frequencies were in sync.

But was his work truly done? Oh no. He had to establish contact with the Outer Rim bases next. He grinned at this part, mainly because it made a rad sound when it worked.

Luckily for him, the Outer Rim bases hadn't reported anything about their codes being changed, so this would be much easier than the Moon Base.

He prepared for authentication to come through, and that sweet, sweet sound!

 ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_**

Wait, that wasn't the sound he wanted!

That was the near opposite of the sound he wanted!

It made him jump out of his seat, causing him to fall down. Shaking his head as the sound kept going on, he looked at the monitor detailing the communications error.

"Huh?" he said, now a little calmer, "That's weird..." He tried a recalibration of the system settings...

 ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_**

...only to be met with that same stupid sound.

Maybe if he tried calibrating the frequency for each individual planet, "Uh...Pluto Base? Come in Pluto Base. This is Number Two of the Kids Next Door Sector V on Earth. Please stop eating or something and respond!"

No response.

 ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_**

Number Two's panic modes were beginning to rise quite quickly. Was this an attack by Father? Or the Boss? Whatever notorious adult was behind it, if one KND base was out of sync, the entire system could fall apart! Then, an even worse thought came to mind: if Pluto Base was experiencing the effects of some kind of virus, or invasion, who knows how long it would take for the other bases to be infected!

"Number One'll kill me!" Two exclaimed, and quickly brought up a program that ran calibrations on all the frequency codes, and to his horror, it was just as he feared.

"That can't be good!" he proclaimed.

"No, that can't be good at all!" he proclaimed again as various computer screens detailed that there was no signal on Jupiter Base, Pluto Base, Saturn Base, Venus Base, and Uranus Base...

 ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_**

 ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_**

 ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_**

 ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_**

As what was once the easiest job became a possible catastrophe, he felt a bit of pressure on his wrists...

 ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO WEE-DOO_** ** _WEE-DOO_**

* * *

 **DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL - CHAPTER 2: A Future with Fuse**

 **It was probably a mistake to say that the next chapter would come 1 week after the first. But hey, just in time (a little late) for Cartoon Network's 25th Anniversary!**

 **So, you may have a lot of questions, but some are best left unanswered, but do express your concerns in a PM or review.**

 **Now, in terms of characters, it may seem confusing as to why I'm jumping straight into the full character roster and introducing character relationships without any introduction, like how and why Finn the Human is in the normal world and how does he know Ben. Trust me when I say that it's all a part of the grand-er design. It may not be obvious now, but I have big plans for all of this. As to what the hell an 'anthro' is, it is the term used for an anthropomorphic animal that shares certain human characteristics, such as bi-pedal walking, talking, having jobs, talking, sharing human lifespans, and talking. Its going to be my go-to explanation for animal characters like Mordecai & Rigby, Gumball & Darwin, Lazlo and co., etc. Animals who aren't anthros are called non-anthros, and for _those_ types to talk or walk is a _very_ rare phenomenon, like with Courage the Cowardly Dog, Scooby-Doo, Dukey from JT, or Munroe, for some examples.**

 **I should also stress what I said about the reviews. I only got 2 for the first chapter, which is fine, but please, do more. It's an amazing feeling to get reviews. To see others across the country, or even around the world, admire your work gives this feeling of professionalism that can't be obtained by being a normal kid at school. Though after this chapter, I'll be taking a small and very short hiatus from this story, because school is happening now, and I have to get back into the mood, especially since my school uses the IGCSE system, and some of our mock papers are this month.**

 **Anyway, I'll be seeing you next time!**


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